Dining Table Makeover

My dining table desperately needed a makeover. I had it painted myself around 3 years ago, and as I explained in my Barcelona home tour, my lack of experience took a toll on the final result: not only had it wound up discolored (the two halves looked like they were painted in different shades of navy blue, although it was always the same paint), but besides, I didn’t use varnish – a protective top coat. So after three years, my table was a mess with scratches, unremovable tiny pieces of paper stuck to the paint, and etc.

This time, I decided to bring in a professional I would learn a few tricks from, and thus ensure that the final result would not be disappointing again. My friend Mariano (IG @renovando_muebles), a furniture restoration professional, offered to help.

I decided I would keep the legs and the underframe blue, because I imagine the bleached grey table top would look good against this navy blue.

So first thing we did was some initial sanding to prepare the surface for painting, it has to be very smooth for the new paint to adhere. For that you need sandpaper («papel de lija» in Spanish). Then, it was time for a grey paint, but Mariano said that the grey primer – an undercoat applied before the main paint («imprimación») I had used on the table 3 years ago, would do the job just as fine. One of my mistakes 3 years ago was that I used a brush rather than a roller. Use a roller, guys!

After the grey coat was dry, it was time for chalk paint. I bought this one from Leroy Merlin. This time we used a brush, and applied a full coat. The instruction says to let it dry for 4 hours, but 2 was enough. When it was dry, the tabletop looked absolutely white, and it took a lot of sanding to give it this bleached grey look.

The final touch was varnish («barniz» in Spanish).

So as you can see, it’s not that difficult, you just need to follow a few rules:

• Make sure you prepare the piece with sanding and wipe it with a wet cloth afterwards.
• Don’t forget to stir the paint!
• Use a roller and don’t apply too much paint at once. Several light coats will always look better than a single heavy one.