Dining Table Makeover In Progress (Plus The Four Paint Colors I Considered)
I started working on my dining table makeover yesterday. I was so hoping that I could get it finished and move the table back into the room so that we could see the table and my new flower chandelier together, but I didn’t quite get it finished. And after beginning the first coat of paint, I also wondered if I landed on the right color. That still remains to be seen. But let me show you the progress so far.
As a reminder, this is the table I started with. I bought it on Marketplace for $50, which was a huge bargain because this table retails for $650. It was in fairly good condition, but it was obviously in used condition. The top was pretty rough and the previous owner’s child had added a bit of “artwork” to the top.
My goal was to end up with it looking something like this table in my ChatGPT mockup of the dining room. While this color is my inspiration, I also had to choose a color that specifically coordinated with the drapery fabric for the room.
I generally buy my paint (especially for walls) from Home Depot. Behr is my go-to brand. But ever since I painted my walk-in closet cabinets with Sherwin Williams paint, I find myself leaning towards Sherwin Williams for furniture and cabinets. On the suggestion of the very helpful employee, I also went with a primer that I’ve never used before — Sherwin Williams Extreme Bond primer.
I had her tint the primer, and while she couldn’t tint it exactly to the paint color (for reasons she tried to explain to me, but I didn’t understand), she wasn’t able to match it exactly to the paint color. But it had enough color in it to do the job.
I sanded the whole top using my handheld sander with 120-grit sandpaper, and then followed up with 220-grit sandpaper. I sanded the rest by hand using the same sandpaper grits. After I cleaned up all of the dust, I painted the primer on with a brush.
This primer went on beautifully. I was very impressed with it, and it resulted in a very smooth finish.
When the primer was completely dry, I sanded the whole thing again by hand with 220-grit sandpaper to give me the smoothest base possible before applying the paint.
When I chose the paint color, I started by just finding paint colors that coordinated with the fabric, which I had taken with me. I ended up with four possibilities.
The first one was Gecko…
The second one Overt Green…
The third one was Stay In Lime…
And the fourth one was Lime Rickey…
Once I selected the only four paint colors that coordinated with the fabric and seemed to be similar to the inspiration color, I pulled out my phone and compared them to the picture of the inspiration table. Obviously, I ruled out the first two immediately because they were too dark. That left me with the two lighter colors. I ended up going with Stay In Lime.
I wanted to use the same paint that I used for my closet cabinets, but again, for reasons that I didn’t understand (although she explained it to me) she wasn’t able to mix my selected color in that paint. So she said that this ProClassic paint would be just as durable and could be mixed in the color I selected.
And if you look at the label, you might see something that may shock you. I say all the time that I don’t like shiny paint, but because the inspiration table has a shiny finish, I went with a semi-gloss paint. I hope I don’t end up regretting that decision.
Again, I didn’t get the whole thing finished, and I am going to go ahead and paint the whole table this color, even if I end up changing my mind on the color. But I have a sneaking suspicion that I should have gone with the lightest green instead of this one.
I’m going to wait until I have the whole thing painted and moved back into the room to see what it looks like in the lighting in the actual room where it’s going to be used. But I do have a feeling that I’ll end up putting a final coat of the lightest green over this one. I think this one is close, but it’s not quite right. But it’s really hard to tell when it’s sitting outside instead of in the actual room.
But at least it’s progress! And it will need two coats of paint anyway, so doing the second coat in a lighter color won’t add any additional steps to the process. And so far, the paint doesn’t look semi-gloss to me, but it might have more of a sheen once I get the second coat on. If not, I may end up adding my favorite General Finishes High Performance Topcoat in a glossy finish to the top. But we’ll see!
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Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
It almost looks like there’s a dark glaze on the paint in the mock-up. That would enhance the details on the legs and give the paint more dimension…..and also mute the color just a bit. Try a junk piece!!! What the heck….it’s only paint!!!!
I like the green you chose, it has just a bit of punch. The Lime Rickey seems a bit bland. Of course I’ve not seen you fabrics to know which works better with them. I use ChatGPT as a guide and usually make some sort of change to the real thing.
I think you are close, but the green alone is missing treatment or something. I see a glaze or coffee stain is needed not an immediate clear coat to lay something on what you got. Some grunge to give life back to the table vs a flat color. A something is necessary to softly outline the detail under the gloss as much or more than reflected light.
Have some experience with painting furniture and using Sherwin Williams paint. Love SW, it’s my go to for quality look and long term performance, I was steered that way by a designer and a professional painter. However I now usually top coat painted furniture with General Finishes clear coat, water based. At that point I can do a Satin or Flat finish. I adopted this process after having some long ago pieces get chipped when using other/inferior products. Since doing so the finishes on heavy use painted furniture have performed very very well. I confess, long ago I used lesser grade products, didn’t always do the process right with primer, remember to scuff sand, didn’t top coat.
Redoing furniture is a lot of work and I don’t change things frequently so I want it done right and to last. I have a cat that managed to scratch some chair backs because I cut corners before I committed to DOING IT RIGHT, lol. I won’t ever skip priming and scuff sand again. I just did a bench in the same product, semi gloss and will be clear coating in satin.
Also….. the paint/stain industry is always responding to environmental issues with product, performance improvement, etc so the formulas are constantly evolving. Have a family member in SW management. Tinting is an interesting, complicated thing, certain pigments do so better than others. I have also learned to select colors for certain things based on how well it resists UV damage. Again, painting is hard work and not cheap so I pay particular attention to colors for the exterior of my house or things that sit in heavy light by a window. Like you I often tint primers to improve coverage of the end color. It makes a difference. I once primed wainscoting in SW gray, topcoated in SW eggplant in 2 coats. My brother was doing a similar job in a lesser grade paint, no tinted primer and it took him 5 coats to get solid coverage. My job cost less and looked better.
I’ve just done 3 pieces of furniture, fun to refresh. All the best to you.
I’m never brave enough to pick a paint color without sampling it in the space. It’s so expensive nowadays, and I don’t love rework.
I like the color you picked. I don’t think it needs to be lighter. It will look so good with the fabric of the drapes. I’m anxious to see it in the house.
Hope you are doing the leaf to the table at the same time.
My vote would have been the Lime Ricky, but will you need to prime it again if you swap colors? Years ago I had Behr paint slough off my walls and from then on I have always used SW paint. Even my Fella, who is so cheap he used to buy the absolute cheapest paint made, now swears by SW.
When I used behr on shelves in Florida it NEVER stopped feeling tacky when stuff was set on it. Years later it was still tacky. And I did it right, sanding, priming, sanding, painting. No top coat though.
No, you don’t have to prime again if you’re just using a different color.
The inspiration table looks like it has a brown or antiquing amaze over the paint. It would tone down the green and add definition.