I’m slowly working my means via sharing all of the tutorials of initiatives from our One Room Problem and right this moment I’m right here to speak about our eating room desk. It’s come a great distance, and I even tried to do away with it, but it surely caught round and we gave it a a lot wanted replace that we’re loopy about it. I’m going to share all the small print of The way to Replace an Outdated Eating Room Desk!
With any good makeover, now we have to start out from the start and present a earlier than picture. Somewhat again story on this previous eating room desk – my in-laws bought it once they moved into this residence about 20 years in the past. It sat of their formal eating room and was infrequently used.
Quick ahead to when Dan and I moved in, and as soon as our household began rising, we wanted some place else to sit down in addition to the kitchen island. So when the time got here for the One Room Problem and we had been renovating our eating room, we had to determine what to do with this desk.
After all my first intuition was to only promote it and get one thing new. Simple sufficient proper? Nope. I had it on-line and on craigslist for weeks and nobody needed it haha. However I did promote the chairs. So we had been caught with this desk and will both donate it or maintain it and attempt to replace it. Being the DIYers that we’re – after all we determined to maintain it.
I truly appreciated the form of the desk and the fundamental body – what I didn’t love was the colour and people terrible mirrors on the highest. We saved a desk material over it more often than not so we didn’t must stare at ourselves whereas we had been consuming 😛
Fortunately the mirrors popped proper out so it appeared pure that we’d simply construct some kind of new prime to place of their place. Earlier than I made a decision precisely what that was going to appear to be, I wanted to sand the entire thing down and begin contemporary.
SANDING AN OLD DINING ROOM TABLE
I began with the body first, utilizing my trusty corner cat sander and it was going fairly easily. The highest a part of the desk was just a little difficult but it surely was nonetheless coming off fairly simply.
The legs went a lot faster and I used to be in a position to connect them so I may set them on prime of my noticed horse and sand them there.
As you’ll be able to see beneath, there have been some grooves that had been tougher to get into with my sander. Generally I’ll use a bit of low grit sand paper and simply get in there with my arms, however that wasn’t working nice on this piece.
I grabbed my FIL’s multi purpose oscillating tool and placed on the sanding attachment which labored nice.
As soon as the body of the desk was finished, I needed to do the leaves. These had been a HUGE ache within the butt. I attempted sanding them with my electrical sander first and the end was so exhausting to get off. I had heard of lots of people having luck with citristrip so I made a decision to present {that a} attempt as an alternative.
One tip that lots of people instructed was to place plastic wrap over the gel as soon as it’s on and let it sit like that for a bit. So I did that and waited.
Now I’ve seen these things work wonders for sure items of furnishings and I used to be actually enthusiastic about attempting it for the primary time, however I didn’t have nice outcomes. I’m unsure if it was the previous end on this desk, or what but it surely was being so cussed and never coming off.
It’s exhausting to see on this picture, however even after stripping the Citristrip off, the previous end was nonetheless there. It took off a very skinny layer and I wasn’t about to repeat these steps again and again till it was all off. Approach too messy.
I used to be coping with a gunky, gooey mess however I managed to scrape most of it off after which grabbed my sander once more and went to city. It took a LONG time however I lastly acquired all the way down to the naked wooden.
ADDING A NEW TOP TO AN OLD DINING ROOM TABLE
Okay now that that half was finished, it was time to get to the enjoyable half – including the brand new prime! I did a ton of analysis and Pinterest looking attempting to determine the proper geometric wooden sample. First, I believed I needed one thing much like our mud room bench, however I believed that is perhaps too busy. I thought of doing a herringbone sample however needed one thing extra distinctive.
I sketched one thing out on a bit of paper and confirmed Dan, and he set to work. I completely supposed on serving to with this half, however he acquired in a rhythm and didn’t need to cease.
STEP 1
First we had so as to add some help items to carry up our new inserts. We had some 2x1s left over from one other mission so we minimize these to dimension and positioned 3 on all sides. We merely screwed these in from beneath.
STEP 2
We wanted our prime to be flush with the remainder of the body, so we had to determine what thickness of wooden we may use. For our desk, it wanted to be 3/4 inch whole so we used 1/2″ plywood for the big insert after which 1/4″ plywood for the design on prime.
We screwed this into the 1×2 helps from the highest since it will be coated by the sample.
STEP 3
Now for the design! Like I stated, we used 1/4″ plywood from Lowe’s and used our chop saw to make all of the cuts.
Dan began with the “V” within the center after which labored from the center to the outsides.
Dan is just not a carpenter and he did his greatest (which was superb) however he did find yourself doing half the desk after which beginning utterly over as a result of he didn’t like the way in which it was lining up. There have been too many cracks and holes. So be taught from his errors!
When you get a bit down, GLUE IT. He didn’t do that and I feel that made issues transfer round lots and made it tougher for him to measure.
His methodology was simply to put the following piece the place it was going to go after which use a pencil to mark all sides of the 1/4″ plywood. Then he would join these two marks with a ruler after which take it to the chop noticed and minimize it.
It was tedious and took a while however as soon as it was finished I used to be so happy with him!
FILLING IN THE CRACKS
Now from far-off it seems to be fairly nice, however up shut it undoubtedly had its imperfections. We had been going to only go away it as is, however began eager about all of the meals and crumbs that will get within the holes.
You’ll be able to see it a lot better right here.
I used to be hesitant as a result of I’ve by no means actually discovered a very good stainable wooden filler. I really feel like they by no means truly take the stain the identical because the wooden after which you’ve got all these miscolored marks in your piece of furnishings. However I needed to no less than attempt.
I acquired this Minwax Stainable Wood Filler and tried it on a take a look at piece first.
Now after I tried it and sanded off the residue as soon as it was dry, it left a hoop across the crack and after I stained the entire scrap piece of wooden, you may nonetheless see the discoloration. BUT I found out a option to make it work.
This was my course of:
- Squirt it out in your finger and push it in to the cracks
- Do small sections at a time
- Earlier than it totally dries, take a bit of medium grit sand paper and sand it off
That is what it appeared like as soon as I acquired it in all of the cracks, after which I’d sand it proper off.
By doing it this manner, I discovered that it took the coloration off the wooden across the crack. You’ll be able to see in that picture the way it type of turned the wooden an orangey coloration. I simply made certain when sanding, that I now not noticed any of that coloration.
It gave the entire desk a extra cohesive look and made it look 100 instances higher.
STAINING THE NEW DINING ROOM TABLE
The final half was staining the desk. First I used some Minwax Wood Conditioner which I like to make use of to verify all of the wooden takes the stain the identical and it helps prevents blotching and streaking.
Then it was time to determine on a stain. I needed it to considerably match our leisure unit but it surely wasn’t the identical kind of wooden so I didn’t know if the identical stain would work. I gave it a attempt on a scrap piece and it appeared fairly comparable so I went with it.
The mix was one coat of Provincial and one coat of Darkish Walnut. And that is the way it turned out!
The very last thing was to seal it up which I wasn’t certain what to make use of since we’d be consuming off of it. I requested my good friend Jen since she is aware of a factor or two about these things and he or she stated any end is meals protected after it cures correctly. So I simply used what I normally use – some Minwax Polyurethane.
I truly utilized 3 coats I feel, simply to be protected 😉 As soon as it was dry, it was time to carry it inside! This DIY Eating room desk makeover was lastly completed!
I’m so in love with this desk now and am so joyful we determined to maintain it. It was loads of work however utterly price it. We’ve already made so many new reminiscences gathered round this desk and I hope it’s one thing that may stay in our household for years to return!
Do you’ve got an previous vintage or dated piece of furnishings that wants updating? My good friend Sarah just lately updated an old vintage dining set and it turned out fantastically!
Hopefully this helps encourage you to see what you may flip it into!
