Before and After: My Dining Room Table

We have two dining room tables. When Sam and Savannah were at home, we used both tables, end to end, which comfortably fit all eight of us. Once Savannah left, we were able to go down to one table with the center leaf extended to make a square.

We weren't sure what to do with the table we weren't using anymore. The top of it was in pretty rough shape because our dining room is Grand Central Station around here. (Because we don't have an eat-in kitchen, our dining room table is used for every meal as well as homework, games, etc.) I had seen some fun stenciling ideas on the internet and my wheels started turning.  I figured I had nothing to lose so I decided to sand down the top and try out an idea.

This shows the contrast between the original table and what was underneath.

All sanded and ready to go!

December 24th was unseasonably warm so I was able to do all the sanding then. Unfortunately, the weather turned pretty cold after that so the newly sanded table sat in the garage for the next several weeks. (I'm a big wimp when it comes to the cold!) Last week, Jeff hauled the table in the house and set it up in the basement so I could finish my project.

I used some old vinyl colors I never use and cut out huge stencils. Then I went to work with navy and white stain. I only have a couple of pictures of the process. In the first one, you can see why I had a hard time knowing if the blue was dark enough. The poor lighting and the contrast between the funky stencil colors and the navy stain was very misleading. I believe I added one more coat of blue stain after this picture was taken. Once the stencil was removed, the color really popped!

Almost done. All I had left at this point was to finish the white stripes on the right side and fill in a few more letters (University) with white.

And, as of about 9:00 this morning, here's the all-but-finished project. The only thing left to do is to finish it off with a few coats of polyurethane. Jeff is planning to do that this weekend.

A close up. I love how it turned out! 

Overall, the project was harder than I expected and I learned a lot along the way, but I love our one-of-a-kind table. Can you tell we love our BYU? :)