Earlier this month, I found a dining room table for $30 at an Antique Store. I’d been looking for a new table for a few weeks, & found this one somewhat by chance: bought it quickly. It was made from nice, sturdy wood; had a nice glossy finish; had only minor things that needed tweaking as far as the overall table itself was concerned. (Minimal leveling of the legs, a few loose screws. You get the picture.)

Anyway, after getting this table I decided I really wanted to paint it a kind of bright, in-your-face sort of color to fit nicely in my Kitchen, which I painted a sort of lavendar-gray color late last summer. It’s easily the most toned down color of any of the walls or rooms in my house- so obviously, I thought the kitchen really needed something of a focal point.

After searching a few local hardware stores for the perfect color, I dropped in to the local Sherwin Williams store down the street. Lo & behold, I found this color: Radish.

Below are pictures documenting my “Do It Yourself Old Table into New” throughout the process of finishing the table. My first step was to sand off all the original finishing that I could- luckily, with the help of a power sander. While the pictures tell a story of their own, I have to say this really took me a lot longer to do that I expected, but actually turned out to be pretty cathartic in a weird way. Something of a “destroy to create” sort of idea as cheesy as that may sound. After the table was sanded, I cleaned off all the sawdust & got out the paintbrushes. This table overall took about three coats in total to get it to the color & balance that I was going for with my Radish colored paint. Then, after all of the painting and applying coat after coat & the down time waiting on the paint to dry, I took a brush and applied two more coats of an oil-based Polyurethane. I use this type of finish on my birdhouse projects usually. Be careful though- this stuff is seriously toxic. I had to apply the finish to the table outdoors, which, the polyurethane being oil-based meant it took longer to dry (as opposed to water-based) but overall, I thought the oil-based would hold the paint longer & with better quality. Although you could probably buy something similar for a lot more than $30, this method just seems a lot more rewarding in the long run.

Take a look for yourself below.

DIY: Red Table Project

photos by Jessica J. Johnston