I actually wanted to call this the “Two-Friends-Two-Tone-Table,” but that was kind of a mouthful!
Once upon a time, one of my dear friends got it into her head that she wanted me to refinish a dining set for her. The fact that she lives 750 miles away from me was no deterrent to her…nor was the fact that she has never physically seen any of the pieces I have refinished. She was determined!
So the search began—long distance and on-line—to find a suitable table. We were on a tight budget, since her husband is one of the nation’s many unemployed.
Enter Friend 2. Upon hearing of our search, she offered to let me have a vintage dining set that had belonged to her husband’s mother. Yes, let me have. As in—for free. She knew it was for another friend of mine, and that they had no money. So out of the goodness of her heart, she donated to our “cause.”
Friend 1 and Friend 2 don’t know each other, and probably will never meet. But bless them both, for having faith in ME to put this little transaction together!
The table was completely disassembled when I first saw it, but I fell for the chunky legs…hard.
The table top has pull-out leaves on each end and a beautiful apron (it’s the piece on the right, leaning up against the dresser that later became yellow).
Plus a pretty stretcher (it’s not quite so blurry in real life).
And six chairs, one of which is an arm chair.
Friend 1 only ever saw the pictures, but she trusted me to bring this dining set into the current century! I’m sure she had a few misgivings along the way, though!
There were a lot of loose joints and such, so I had to do some gluing (this Bessey clamp was a marvel to work with—I borrowed it from a friend, and almost didn’t give it back):
…as well as some creative repair work on the arm chair. The dowel had broken off, so I used a 3/8” paddle bit to drill out the old dowel, and then I cut a new one to replace it and re-glued the arm back on the chair.
I enlisted some of my short help to sand chairs…
He looks thrilled, doesn’t he??
I sanded the table top completely down—you can see how dark the original finish was on the leaves!
The rest of the table top was not in nearly that good of condition!
The grooves on the top of the table reminded me of a checkerboard, and inspired me to try a two-color staining job. The only problem was that the grooves did not extend down the sides of the table top—but that was nothing a little work with a handsaw and some black paint couldn’t fix!
I painted the base of the table (and the chairs) black, and distressed them to highlight the turnings and carvings.
The dark stain on the table is Minwax Antique Walnut, and the lighter stain is Pecan.
Here you can see it with both leaves extended.
I love how the checkerboard effect shows up even on the sides with the leaves closed.
I wasn’t brave enough to pick out fabric for the chairs for someone else, so with the help of another friend, we took lots of pictures of bolts of fabric and sent them (via iPhone) before she chose this pretty black floral/paisley print.
The fabric on the seats wasn’t really dirty or in bad condition, so I didn’t remove it—I just added a new layer of batting and stapled the new fabric over all…plus a bit of my sleeve… (whoops!)
And there you have it: the Two Tone Table! I really love the look of it. It wouldn’t have been bad at all in my now-empty front room…
…but alas…my friend came and took it away (yes, from 750 miles away).
I hope it’s happy in its new home!
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Thanks to It’s So Very Cheri, Stylish Once Again, My Repurposed Life, and Simple Home Life for featuring this project!
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