Vintage Dining Table Makeover

Back in September I found the perfect vintage dining room table for our dining room on Craigslist. I love shopping Craigslist, Thrift Stores, Consignment Stores etc. for furniture and accessorizes for unique pieces for our home. After seeing the ad I new the table would look amazing in our home. I loved its oval shape, pedestal base, curvy legs, and its size. We're finally able to seat six in our small dining room, which is huge huge!! In our dining room before we were only able to seat four people and it always felt on the small side. We bought the vintage dining table and six chairs for $200, we only wanted the table but the seller didn't want to separate the set [don't you hate when that happens!] Before buying the table we already purchased for chairs, for the time being the chairs will be in our garage and I'll refinish in them future.

But before I share those pretty afters, here's a reminder of what our vintage dining room table looked like when we brought it home. The picture below is from the Craigslist seller.

In the picture below taken in our garage, you can see the top of the table had few issues. The top of the table had what appeared a burn mark, maybe from a hot pot being placed on it? Paint Stripper and Wood filler came to my rescue and the top is now smooth again.

I decided to paint table using oil paint, I loved how the finish on our vintage campaign dresser turned out and wanted the same durable finish. I used the same steps as the campaign dresser on the dining room table: removing the old finish using a paint stripper, wood filler, lots of sanding, and oil based primer and oil paint. I used three coats of paint on the table waiting 24 hours between each coat before applying the next coat. Here's our newly finished dining room table, looking in from the living room into the dining room. Please ignore the blue tape in the table legs in the first picture, love the shot & had to share.

Now a picture with our newly painted front door in the view. Read more about the recent front door paint makeover here. To this day I'm so happy we decided to widen the opening between our living room and dining room / kitchen. Before our kitchen and dining room felt closed off from the rest of our home, making everything feel small & cramped. Now with the wide doorway everything feels open and connected. I also love how more natural light bounces between the spaces. I'm so happy we went with an oval shape dining room table, the curves on the table help break up the hard lines in the dining room, and give the illusion of more space. 

I love our espresso Klismos dining room chairs we bought at West Elm (on clearance, oh how I love clearance) paired with our curvy white dining room table. I love the contrast of the dark chairs with a white table. Before in our dining room, we had the contrast flipped dark table and white upholstered chairs with dark legs. 

I love the pretty legs on the table, they are so pretty and have a great vintage flair. At the bottom on the legs are pretty brass craps, I left them alone. I love how the tarnished caps at the end of the feet look against the glossy finish of the table. Pretty contrast between shiny and new and aged. 

Happily, I finished our vintage dining room a few weeks before Thanksgiving, so looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. I'm super happy about how our dining room has been evolving the past few months since moving back home. You can see how our dining room looked before here. I recently shared DIY back tab drapes I made for our dining room, loving how well they compliment our dining room and table. In the future we'd love to add banquette seating in front of the window. I really love the look of this one but with more modern lines. Next on my list for our dining room, adding either a large canvas artwork or a college of photos on the blank wall.

What do you think of our newly painted vintage dining room table? Was your dining room table also a DIY Project?