Dining table and chairs makeover

I have a new-ish refinishing “finish” for you to try… like this mennonite dining table and chairs makeover that went completely MATTE!

Happy weekend!

So something happened when I finished cabinet-making school…

Suddenly I received a rush of orders for refinishing projects? Normally I’d say no, and focus on building projects, but a girl’s gotta eat right?

On top of that Michelle was my “big sister” in Kappa Alpha Theta – and you don’t say no to your big sister. lol

Besides, she had an interesting concept that I wanted to experiment with… a completely matte finish!?!

Let me show you what we started with for this dining table and chairs makeover:

A traditional oak (mennonite-ish) dining table. The edges and bread boards are solid oak, but the centre panel is actually plywood with an oak veneer – so I was nervous as to whether I’d be able to bring this down to bare wood for a matte clear coat. Veneers tend to be about 1/8″ thick (30mm), so if you sand too aggressively you’ll break right through.

But the dining table and chairs did have some damage and the stain and finish had become dated, so it was worth the risk to prolong its life.

To start Michelle’s dining table and chairs makeover I used 120, 150 and 220 grit sandpaper to clean off as much of the old finish as I could. It would have been nice if I could have gone a bit lower to get rid of the deeper stain in the grain of the wood, but I was pushing my luck as it was.

The legs only needed a rough sanding because they were to be painted black.

What was different about this (that had me so curious) is that Michelle wanted a completely matte finish – like the sideboard I did the other day.

Matte black legs and skirting and a MATTE CLEAR COAT for the top! I’ve never seen nor used a matte clear coat before, so I was really excited to see how it would turn out.

It is GORGEOUS!

In the photos it might look like bare wood – but in person, you can tell that it has been finished and it is SHARP!

The clear coat is matte, but not as matte as bare wood; just the very slightest of sheens.

The chairs that went with this dining table and chairs makeover were also a bit dated and worn.

A light sanding and a scrub with Krud Kutter,

followed by a quality primer,

Then two coats of matte black paint (Benjamin Moore’s Advance formula):

What do you think?

They look beautiful – although I will admit that I think it would have been better if I had used the matte clear coat over top of the matte black paint, just to make dusting easier. As it is, matte black paint shows marks as easily as a chalkboard and is just as difficult to clean off. Beautiful, but tedious. A matte clear coat would have sealed the black in so that nothing landing on the surface would mark.

But if she’s happy with the dining table and chairs makeover, I’m happy.

And what’s not to be happy about:

Farm-style furniture looking crisp and contemporary.

I didn’t want the dark in the grain lines, but now that I see the set together, it’s quite sharp. Completely sanding it out might have made the table top too bland?