In this post I’ll share how I made over my farmhouse style kitchen table and why I painted it! I loved it before, and I love my white kitchen table even more now!
OK, OK, OK, I know that there will definitely be some people who aren’t very happy with me about this. I know that there are a lot of people who still believe that you should never, ever paint over wood furniture. Honestly though, it had to be done and I’m completely in love with my white kitchen table now. So let’s talk this through. 🙂
Why I Painted my Kitchen Table White
First of all, this is a beautiful farmhouse style table. It has two leaves and it can easily seat 12-14 people around it with both leaves in, right in the middle of our kitchen, which is pretty amazing. One of the issues with the old finish was that it wasn’t very good at protecting the table and even the slightest bit of moisture or steam had caused it to bubble up in a few places. After six years of daily use, I definitely needed to sand the top down anyway and refinish it both because it was looking a bit rough, and also because I wanted to protect the table better.
The fact that we’re taking photos with this table in them constantly was also a big issue. It seems silly to make a choice like this based just on how things will look in photos, but Chris and I both work on this blog full time and have spent a lot of hours over the years trying to adjust color levels while we’re editing photos to try to make the table look less orange. It just glowed in photos for some reason! Ha!
I considered maybe just changing the wood tone when I refinished the table, but we already have so many different wood tones in here with the wood counters and the wood open shelves, that I just knew white was the way to go. And I don’t regret it! The styling possibilities are pretty much endless now and the photos have turned out beautifully so far!
White Kitchen Table: Before and After
So let’s look at how this table looked before. It’s a beautiful table, no matter what color it is, that’s for sure. This is why it took me six years to want to actually change it!
I started out by sanding the whole thing down with a power sander. I sanded the legs by hand though. It was just easier.
I did three coats of paint (I used a warmish white), using a brush for legs and sides, and a roller for the top.
Then I made a bit of a mistake.
I really love the subtle sheen and depth of color that you get with a waxed finish and it’s also a pretty great protector, so I wanted to do that. The only problem was that I’ve never used wax over white paint before. Let me tell you: “Clear wax” is not really clear. Even though I applied the wax very, very thinly, I still ended up with some areas with very subtle yellowish streaks. Most of the table looks great, but those few areas are definitely bugging me even though they aren’t visible enough to ever show up in photos. So I may have to sand that all off with a very fine grit sand paper at some point soon and go with something else.
Other than that small little sticking point, I’m so happy with how it turned out! I’ve been having so much fun playing around with different Christmas decorations so far this this and the whole room just feels so much brighter.
Would you ever paint a big table like this or are you a strict “never paint wood” person? 🙂
MORE IDEAS LIKE THIS
- Old Hutch to Modern Buffet Furniture Makeover
- Farmhouse Style Essentials That You Can Make Yourself
- IKEA Wood Counters: 3 Years Later
- Why we Chose Laminate Instead of Hardwood
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.