I’m slowly working my method by sharing all of the tutorials of tasks from our One Room Challenge and at present I’m right here to speak about our eating room desk. It’s come a good distance, and I even tried to do away with it, however it 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 I’m going to share all the small print of Easy methods to Replace an Outdated Eating Room Desk!
With any good makeover, we’ve to start out from the start and present a earlier than photograph. A bit of again story on this outdated eating room desk – my in-laws bought it once they moved into this house about 20 years in the past.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 would have liked elsewhere to take a seat apart from the kitchen island. So when the time got here for the One Room Challenge and we have been renovating our eating room, we had to determine what to do with this desk.
After all my first intuition was to simply promote it and get one thing new. Straightforward sufficient proper? Nope. I had it on-line and on craigslist for weeks and nobody wished it haha. However I did promote the chairs. So we have been caught with this desk and will both donate it or preserve it and attempt to replace it. Being the DIYers that we’re – in fact we determined to maintain it.
I truly appreciated the form of the desk and the essential 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 need to stare at ourselves whereas we have been consuming 😛
Fortunately the mirrors popped proper out so it appeared pure that we’d simply construct some type of new high to place of their place. Earlier than I made a decision precisely what that was going to appear like, I wanted to sand the entire thing down and begin recent.
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 somewhat difficult however it was nonetheless coming off fairly simply.
The legs went a lot faster and I used to be capable of connect them so I might set them on high of my noticed horse and sand them there.
As you’ll be able to see beneath, there have been some grooves that have been more durable to get into with my sander. Generally I’ll use a bit of low grit sand paper and simply get in there with my fingers, 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 performed, I needed to do the leaves. These have been a HUGE ache within the butt. I attempted sanding them with my electrical sander first and the end was so laborious to get off. I had heard of lots of people having luck with citristrip so I made a decision to provide {that a} strive as a substitute.
One tip that lots of people steered 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 outdated end on this desk, or what however it was being so cussed and never coming off.
It’s laborious to see on this photograph, however even after stripping the Citristrip off, the outdated 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. Manner 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 right down to the naked wooden.
ADDING A NEW TOP TO AN OLD DINING ROOM TABLE
Okay now that that half was performed, it was time to get to the enjoyable half – including the brand new high! I did a ton of analysis and Pinterest looking attempting to determine the proper geometric wooden sample. First, I believed I wished one thing just like our mud room bench, however I believed that may be too busy. I thought of doing a herringbone sample however wished one thing extra distinctive.
I sketched one thing out on a bit of paper and confirmed Dan, and he started working. I completely meant on serving to with this half, however he acquired in a rhythm and didn’t wish to cease.
STEP 1
First we had so as to add some assist items to carry up our new inserts. We had some 2x1s left over from one other undertaking so we lower these to measurement and positioned 3 on all sides. We merely screwed these in from beneath.
STEP 2
We would have liked our high to be flush with the remainder of the body, so we had to determine what thickness of wooden we might use. For our desk, it wanted to be 3/4 inch complete so we used 1/2″ plywood for the big insert after which 1/4″ plywood for the design on high.
We screwed this into the 1×2 helps from the highest since it might 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 isn’t a carpenter and he did his greatest (which was superb) however he did find yourself doing half the desk after which beginning fully 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 rather a lot and made it more durable for him to measure.
His technique was simply to position 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 lower it.
It was tedious and took a while however as soon as it was performed I used to be so pleased with him!
FILLING IN THE CRACKS
Now from distant it appears to be like fairly nice, however up shut it undoubtedly had its imperfections. We have been going to simply depart it as is, however began desirous about all of the meals and crumbs that will get within the holes.
You’ll be able to see it significantly better right here.
I used to be hesitant as a result of I’ve by no means actually discovered stainable wooden filler. I really feel like they by no means truly take the stain the identical because the wooden after which you could have all these miscolored marks in your piece of furnishings. However I needed to at the least strive.
I acquired this Minwax Stainable Wood Filler and tried it on a take a look at piece first.
Now once I tried it and sanded off the residue as soon as it was dry, it left a hoop across the crack and once I stained the entire scrap piece of wooden, you could possibly nonetheless see the discoloration. BUT I found out a strategy 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 absolutely dries, take a bit of medium grit sand paper and sand it off
That is what it seemed like as soon as I acquired it in all of the cracks, after which I’d sand it proper off.
By doing it this fashion, I discovered that it took the coloration off the wooden across the crack. You’ll be able to see in that photograph the way it form of turned the wooden an orangey coloration. I simply made positive when sanding, that I not noticed any of that coloration.
It gave the entire desk a extra cohesive look and made it look 100 occasions 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 wished it to considerably match our entertainment unit however it wasn’t the identical kind of wooden so I didn’t know if the identical stain would work. I gave it a strive on a scrap piece and it seemed fairly comparable so I went with it.
The mixture 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 positive what to make use of since we’d be consuming off of it. I requested my buddy Jen since she is aware of a factor or two about these things and he or she stated any end is meals secure 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 secure 😉 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 comfortable we determined to maintain it. It was a variety of work however fully price it. We’ve already made so many new recollections gathered round this desk and I hope it’s one thing that can stay in our household for years to return!
Do you could have an outdated vintage or dated piece of furnishings that wants updating? My buddy Sarah just lately updated an old vintage dining set and it turned out superbly!
Hopefully this helps encourage you to see what you could possibly flip it into!
