If you follow me on Instagram, you saw me debating with myself whether or not to get a new dining table. We are out growing our current table and when we have guests, it really doesn’t work. At first, I tried swapping my desk with the dining table. The desk is only slightly longer, but with the rectangular shape we had room for an extra chair on one side. Still, it wasn’t what I really wanted and I knew it wasn’t good enough for extra guests. I lived with it for two days before I decided that it just wouldn’t work.

Today, I went to our base thrift store to check on any new tables they may have gotten. I lucked out again!! I found this beautiful round wooden table with a big pedestal base. It also have two 12″ leaves.

One of the men who worked there helped me put the leaves in and make sure everything worked. He also told me I could have it for $20! I told him I’d give him $30. I try to donate a little every time I purchase something from them. The Navy Relief Corps is a non profit organization that offer assistance to Navy personnel, their family and survivors.

You can learn more about their organization here.

As soon as I got this baby home, I got to work on it. The finish was pretty banged up and I want to stain it the same as the two dressers in the living room. I sanded the top down to bare wood so my new stain will take.

I used 150 grit sandpaper and made sure to use nice, even strokes so that I wouldn’t gouge the table. It came out nice and smooth. I vacuumed as much dust as I could, then wiped it down with a damp cloth.

Now the first coat of stain. I started with the Weathered Oak just like I did with the dressers.

I was nervous that it would look totally different because I don’t know what type of wood this is and it could take the stain completely different. I think it’s a little more orange than the dressers, but I still like it very much.

Tomorrow I will put the second coat of Red Oak stain and start on the base. Since there are so many details on the base, I am going to chalk paint it. I won’t be able to sand it to bare wood or even sand it very well for regular latex paint so the chalk paint will be perfect. It will adhere to the wood well without much sanding. I will keep you posted on my progress.