Dining Table redo & a Chalkboard....

I may have mentioned in the past that we got our dining room set

about 23 yrs ago.  We lived in a Victorian Home and we decorated Victorian.

The top of the table was in poor shape, so we removed the veneer....

~23 yrs ago~

I used tablecloths to cover the table.  Then last fall~ish time I just

got tired of tablecloths!

 So one day I just took the tablecloth off and put 

out a burlap bag and told myself it looked 

good and was fine with it....kinda. 

 We use this table alot, not every night, but quite often.

This dining set (with the original chairs we no longer have)

 is Jacobean Style. 

 I just googled it and found a set almost exactly like ours. 

 At one time we also had the matching buffet, but sold it

 about 14 yrs ago when we lived in a brand new house that

 had a much smaller dining room. 

 Now I wish we had kept it! 

Anyway, one day the rough edges and the still visible glue that

 held the veneer and the old signs of our girls art

 (Christmas bell shape outlined in ink) just wasn't doing it for me. 

 So I got out the hand sander and started working on it.

 I made lots of saw dust with this little hand sander.

Then the holidays came and the tablecloths went back on and well....

you know how it goes sometimes.

 But, this past weekend, off came the tablecloth once again and I mentioned to my guy that I wanted to paint the top of the table.  He amazingly agreed, and told me to do it!  But, you know me and my fear of painting antique  furniture.  I changed my mind and decided to just stain it. So he got out the electric sander and within an hour had it sanded as smooth as it would get.  It is the under veneer wood after all.

  Just pine, says my guy! 

 I don't care, I just wanted to have a nice wood tabletop!

 So we stained it

 and polyurethaned it

(several coats)

this wood just soaked it in like a sponge.

 I used a satin poly that is wipe on.  So it's not shiny and that's okay.  I really like how it turned out. I even like all of the knicks and dents and scratches.  I have to do some touch up on the legs with the stain,

 but that's not a biggie.

 This chair that I moved to my new craft room belongs

 with the dining table. At one time we had all four chairs

 and now we are down to just two.

My in~laws bought us 6 new oak chairs to go with our table.

They don't really go with it, but it was a generous gift!

So we slowly moved the "originals" to other rooms.

 Now we don't remember what we did with the other two. 

 Oh well!

(I at this point have decided to wait on painting this chair too)

Oh how I wish I had guts to paint antiques!

 Then I have this chalkboard perched on my Mom's antique sewing machine cabinet in my dining room.  I don't have any Valentine decorations out so I decided to decorate this chalkboard a bit.

 I sorta copied!

(I got the idea from here if you're interested)

and I put this wooden heart under this cloche too!

That's about it for my Valentine decorating this year!

I don't know what has taken us all these years

 to do something with the top of this table. 

 I guess life happened! 

 Raising 3 girls, moving to another state

and back, aging parents....

Yep, life happened!

What projects have you wanted to do, but put on hold for awhile?

As always, Thanks for stopping by!