Dining table and chairs upcycle

[NickiM]

An old farmhouse style kitchen table and 12 chairs sanded back, stained and painted.

• The project
• Steps
• Tools and materials
• Before and after
• More inspiration for your furniture makeover

The project

I have a big family, so the original eight-seater square table, then ten-seater long table were always going to be too small. So when I finally found an affordable secondhand 12-seater table and chairs, I snapped up the bargain with the intention to give it a massive makeover to match my farmhouse kitchen.

Steps

 

Step 1

Remove the chair seat from the frames. Lightly sand the frames and using the spray gun, paint the frames café cream colour.

Step 2

 

Using the Ozito sander and 60-80 grit sandpaper, sand the chair base. This process took almost one hour per chair base and I have 12 seats.

Step 3

Remove the tabletop from the legs. Using the same Ozito sander and several replacement 60-80 grit sanding sheets, sanded back the dark brown table to its natural wood. This took almost nine hours over a number of days (lots of pressure on your back, arms and legs). 

Step 4

Paint the table legs the same café cream colour as the chair frames.

Step 5

 

Clean all the sawdust off the table and chair base and wash with a water and sponge. Apply clear varnish to the natural wood, let it dry and lightly sand with 240-260 grit sandpaper before applying varnish again. I applied three coats (with my little helper).

For my tabletop and chair base, I sanded it right back to the natural wood. Then using a clear wood gloss varnish, I applied 2-3 coats. For the chair frames, I lightly sanded and then used a Taubmans Ultimate Enamel paint in a Dulux Café Crème colour.

Step 6

Reattach the chair base to the frames, and legs to the table top. What an amazing transformation. 

Tools and materials

Tools used in the project:

• Ozito sander
  
  
• Ozito paint spray gun
  
  
• 60 grit sanding paper
  
  
• 240 grit sanding paper
  
  
• Trojan 80 grit jumbo sanding sponge.

Materials used in the project:

• Dulux café cream paint
  
  
• Clear varnish.

Before and after

More inspiration for your furniture makeover

Workshop member twocutekelpies used paint, varnish and beeswax for upcycled dining table and chairs.

Community member Lorena used Cabot's water-based stains on her large dining table transformation.

Check out our Top 10 most popular indoor furniture projects for more great ideas from our clever and creative Bunnings Workshop community members.

[Dave-1]

Afternoon @NickiM 

Seriously can smell the brand new table varnish! That is a great job and must say the table is HUGE! I didnt really see how huge until I saw the child sitting on it lol I really like how you went to the effort of removing the seats and stripping them back.

That is a beautiful table setting.

Dave

[NickiM]

Thanks @Dave-1 

This was a challenging but exciting project. It was my first time sanding and painting something so big (probably should have started with a coffee table first 🙄). But I loved the result and the feedback I get. Bunnings had everything I needed for the makeover, so that definitely helped.
Your comments are also encouraging. I really appreciate it. Thank you.