White Distressed to Dark & Rich

  Hi there!! Today I'm going to talk about my table. Not just my table. My whole dining room- how about my love/hate relationship with this dining room. I havent got around to posting about my house yet. So 1st things 1st.. Ill start with the dining room.

    I love our new house- its very tastefully remodeled. The people we bought the house from had great taste & did many wonderful things as far as design goes. Heres my kitchen...

Pretty modern huh!?! Thats the problem... This house is a little more modern than my "country cottage" last house. Here is the dining view from the kitchen...

Ok so on with the table! So the first table we had in here was a espresso colored pub table. I liked the table... Just not in this room- having the height of the pub table took away from the bar area. So I sold the pub table & was on a mission for a basic rectangle table. Well the problem is (always the problem) is I have Pottery Barn taste on a no job budget! And Im kinda too cheap to spend too much money on something because I get in a mood & change my mind all the time!! I seriously drive myself crazy sometimes!   So Ive always wanted a pedestal table, and I found this one, wasnt exactly what I had in mind (the price was great though) & as I was loading it in the car I thought "I dont know, I dont know" but too late it was paid for... No going back now. So I got it home set it up, wasnt in love with it. So I tried to sell it. Advertised- nope- stuck with it... So I lived with it for awhile, then I thought "ok, Ive got 2 options" paint it black or strip it...but I really didnt want to paint or strip those chairs- ugh! Too much work! I kept going back & forth in my head... Black or stained, black or stained. 

     So, a few days later my husband & I are cleaning up the garage shelves. The people that we bought the house from had left a bunch of paint cans, boards, etc. Well guess what "happened" to be in with the mix of paint cans... You guessed it! So here goes... Without taking a second thought I poured that stripper on that table & held my breath... Ive never stripped anything before! Hope this works! 

   Heres a closer up of the table before...

Heres after I put the stripper on & scraped...

It was actually alot easier than I expected! I did sand around the ridge of the table (in between the grooves) but the stripper did the work on top. Then I wiped it all down real good with just some disinfecting wipes...I know you can use mineral spirits as well but since this was just done on a whim there was no mineral spirits around. Then I used a gel stain (java was the color) I had leftover from one of my old vanities at my old house.

    Heres the 1st coat...

I let that dry overnight... Then 2nd coat..

Then added my polycrylic top coat... Perfect! Its exactly what I wanted!! And the best part, I didnt have to strip the base! So Im loving my "new" table for now... Until I get another whim!! 

   And heres the end result... 

I still need to get something in that wall over there! Just haven't found the perfect match! Im thinking of painting a wooden sign... maybe with a big "G" on it... Any suggestions would be great :)

Here's a more updated picture of the kitchen too... 

And a view of the dining room from the kitchen...

Im still trying to figure out the little decor...This room has been so hard for me for some reason... But it's getting there little by little & then it'll be time to change it all over again ;) Thanks for stopping by!! 

I'm linking up with:

http://savvysouthernstyle.net/

http://confessionsofaplateaddict.blogspot.com/

http://www.greenwillowpond.com/