Salvaged Kitchen Table and Vintage Chairs Makeover & Spread The Kindness Link Up On the Edge #778

Last Friday, I shared the green bedroom furniture that I refurbished for my friend Melissa and I promised to share the kitchen set that I also fixed up and gifted to her.

Back in early spring, I spotted this old round formica-topped kitchen table placed on the curb in front of a neighbor’s house for trash pickup. I was really drawn to the spindly legs and the fact that there were five of them so I asked my husband to bring the table home for me. I had planned to remove the legs to use for some unidentified purpose and ditch the ugly formica table top. But after further investigation, I discovered that the table was manufactured in 1930, making it nearly a century old. Suddenly it seemed worthwhile to salvage the entire table.

By the time the table made it to my garage, one of the legs had been broken off so my before photos are lacking. If you look closely, you can see the 1930 date stamped on the underside of the table.

As you may already know, I absolutely adore my recently painted dining room table so I was not in need of another large table nor do I have any space for one in my house. But my friend Melissa has been starting a fresh new life for herself and she did need a kitchen table. So with her in mind, I set to giving new life to this 95 year old table.

First my husband repaired and reattached the broken leg. Then I pulled off the gold trim around the edge of the table to reveal the awesome dotty detail decorating the rim. Next I sanded it all including the formica top which I realized was probably unnecessary after the fact.

Before I started painting the table, however, I decided to decoupage the table top with old tee shirts. Melissa is an old hippie soul just like Jeff and me so I knew she would appreciate the tie dye, the psychedelic art, and the bands represented on the tee shirt graphics. In fact, one of the tee shirts I used was from moe.down, a festival that Jeff and Melissa attended together in 2019, so it also has some sentimental meaning.

Using Mod Podge for fabric and furniture, I first glued on a layer of tie dye scraps to cover the entire table top. Once the tie dyed background was secured and dried, I began placing the graphic tee shirt scraps all around in a circular design and glued them down. Once it was all dry, I added a top coat of polyurethane to protect it from spills and stains.

Now it was time for painting. I bought sample sized paints in black, red, blue, yellow, green, and orange to mix my homemade chalk paint. It’s super easy to make your own chalk paint in custom colors. Just mix some Plaster of Paris and water into the paint color of your choice until the paint gets a little thicker and goes on with a chalky finish. Keep in mind that the plaster does lighten the paint color a shade or two. I don’t really measure any of the ingredients. I just add and mix until the consistency feels right, adjusting the water, plaster, and paint ratios as necessary. There are recipes available online but I never need the amount of paint required. Most recipes call for a cup of paint. Small furniture items don’t need nearly that much paint and larger pieces require much more. I have painted enough furniture at this point that I can successfully guess the measurements. But if you lack the confidence to wing it like that, by all means, use an online recipe for DIY chalk paint!

I wanted the table to have black trim with bright colorful legs. First, I painted everything black because I had in mind that once I distressed the bright colored paints, the black would show through instead of the original white paint. Once the black paint was dried, I really liked it and had considered leaving it all black.

But I couldn’t shake the idea of rainbow colored legs! So I set about to that task and was really happy that I didn’t stop at the black. After the paint dried, I lightly distressed it with sandpaper and applied a coat of furniture wax to seal it, protect it, and make it all shiny.

When I presented this funky kitchen table to Melissa, she maybe squeaked a little and she definitely cried a little. She loves old junk as much as I do, but even more appealing about my projects is that I ensure that all of my upcycled creations are infused with only good, positive, healing energy. I do a whole Reiki session whenever I am refurbishing old junk in an effort to maintain its good energies while removing any negative energies that the piece may have absorbed during its lifetime. Can you imagine all the things that a 95 year old kitchen table has seen in its lifetime?

The tabletop is a little bit bumpy from the thickness of the fabrics but Melissa has reported that it is not a problem when placing dishes or drinking glasses on it. Nothing topples over, which was a concern of mine, but still it might be well served to have a glass top for it one day. The only problem is that getting a glass top cut for this size table would be so expensive that it would remove all frugality from the project.

Once the table was completed and sent off to its new home, I started my search for chairs. In April, my sister and I went on a junking/thrifting adventure to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We visited a Habitat for Humanity ReStore and I wished I had a moving truck with me because I would have bought so much stuff there! Since my car space was very limited, I focused my search on finding four vintage chairs for Melissa’s tee shirt table. I cannot describe my excitement when I found these four chairs, two sets of two, for a grand total of $12.

There were five of the red chairs but I really liked the idea of mismatched chairs for this table so I only bought two of them. They were made in 1965 by L.B. Ebersol in Leola, Pennsylvania. Sixty year old chairs seemed to make wonderful partners for a 95 year old table.

The two tan shaker style chairs did not have a date or manufacturer stamp. However, they did have lots and lots of layers of paint which may have been covering any identifying stamps or other markings. Even after a good sanding, I couldn’t find anything but I would guess these chairs are likely from the 1950s, making them also great partners for this motley set of vintage kitchen furniture.

I wanted the chairs to be different colors like the legs of the table but I wanted to use four additional colors to really add to the rainbow vibes. Using paints that I already had on hand, I mixed them together in various concoctions to create homemade chalk paints in purple, teal, pink, and turquoise. I slightly distressed them as I always do because it helps to camouflage any naturally occurring scratches in the future. And then I sealed them with a coat of furniture wax. Oh, they make me so happy that I giggle!

I don’t have any photos of the table and chairs together because Melissa is still unpacking from her recent move. But I’m sure you can imagine how stinking adorable these chairs look around the colorful tee shirt table. It’s all a bit wild but a whole lot of fun, I think!

What do you think of this furniture upcycle project?

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