IKEA dining-table hack!

Hi Anyone!

An idea to hack an old IKEA dining table!

My husband came home one day early this summer to notice that our dining-table was gone. It was a simple, black "IKEA - Bjursta", expandable 6 person dining table that had lots of marks and chips on it and it was ugly!
It didn't take too long for him to see that it was in tens of pieces on the patio floor... What on earth!!!
I had dismantled it! Unscrewed all possible screws and put every piece beside each other...

It had been a while that we have spoken about changing our dining-table for something else; something that would stand out and be more timeless but still be a table that would look as if it would have a history of 100 years behind!

We had seen and fallen in love with a very beautiful and original dining-table at JC Perreault in Laval (Qc., Canada) . It was made out of some kind of dark, oriental wood, have 2 large pillars that would hold a huge wooden tabletop on them. Simply beautiful... and expensive!
A few weeks later we were leaving for a trip to Scandinavia and had saved some money for that precise occation, not a table of CAD 1.000$. So we decided that there would NOT be a new table.
Instead, we had a marvelous trip to Europe!

The table feet and base was made of wood so I was playing with the idea of redoing something completely different out of it. After evenings & nights spending time on Pinterest, gathering ideas, I decided to do it myself! I was so full of ideas and wanted so much to see the final result!!!

I took away the black color from the feet and top with a sander. Started with a more gritty paper and finished with a finer grit. I also sanded all the new pine panels with a fine grit sandpaper.

Then I stained them with Minwax Wood Finish (Provincial). I used a foam brush to put it on, let the wood suck the color for 5-10 minutes before wiping the excess color off with a clean cloth, in my case an old t-shirt.

The table top is made of mdf-wood so I could not just sand off the color, I needed to do something else. First I thought about replacing the existing top with a top made of wood panels but decided to leave the existing top and just glue and drill the wood-panels to it (I used red pine).
Once ready, the old mdf-tabletop is visible from under the panels so it would need to be hidden with 1" thick wood frame, cut into custom pieces, stained as the wood panels & base and attached to the mdf-top.

I have a clock on the wall that was the source of my inspiration when choosing the finish. I wanted to have the same vintage, worn-wood look. Here's what I did:
I mixed a bit of water to a white floor paint I had left from my china cabinet job. Wiped it on, left again for 5-10 minutes before wiping it off with a rag. This time it was a wet rag! I let it dry for a day before starting to wipe on the protecting layer of varnish.

As protection I used an oil based hybrid (semi-gloss) varnish from Saman. I put 2 layers of varnish before assembling the table together, with 3-4 more layers after assemblage to "close" the cracks of the panels.

I am so happy and proud of my table once it is ready. I think it fits in my house and brings a whole lot of warmth in my dining room. It is also a bit bigger since the panels are exceeding the original top so we have more space (which is always good when inviting people).
Since my table is expandable, I have the 2 pieces still to do as a future project... for next summer!

Painting rocks - therapy for my mind

If you want to be a moment with only yourself, try to find some time to get round, soft and beautiful river rocks, a white marker, brown color and a small paint brush. And time of course!

Here is my contribution to our family peace. Took all night for myself ;-P

"Le vaisselier"

I have been wanting to change my dining room for a long time since the old, more modern, black and white style set I had was so boring. I had bought a huge china cabinet for our dining room from the Internet. I was excited but wondering what on earth am I getting myself into?

My first ever diy-project I've done was a few weeks ago. I transformed a TV-stand that I painted white and which is in my living room now. 

But now I had my first REAL project on my hands; a huge, wooden cabinet with spider webs! 

My husband thought all the time I was going to change it to another wood color and he was quite curious to see the result when I announced it to be white. 

So here it is the day we got it from a grange on the north side of Montreal area, here in Canada. It was beautiful as is but for me it didn't match like this, I needed to change the wood color.

Original cabinet colour

I was long time torn over my original idea of painting it white or saving it as a wood colour, only less orange. My hubby wished for the wood but I chose white so once again, I lifted my sleeves and started to work.

I removed all the hardware to notice that almost all of the hinges had a plastic part on them that were cracked. I decided to change everything on it, hinges and hardware. I also removed the old beautiful windows on the doors.

Here the vaissellier (=china cabinet) is, in all its raw beauty:

I sanded it down with my brand new DeWalt 1/4 sheet Palm Grip sander. I used only 120 grit paper since I was going to prime it after.
The sanding and cleaning took forever but luckily I had my mom over here from Finland so she helped me a lot. Thank you mom!
Then started the priming part which was surprisingly easy compared to my previous bubbling primer experience with my TV-stand.
The cabinet was smelling a bit murky but with a good layer of primer the smell got reduced. The primer I used was a Sico primer.
As you can see of the picture, I started in the corners and did all of them first with a normal paintbrush and after I filled in everything with a 6mm foam roll. The best would have been to do it a section at a time so that you wouldn't have been able to see the difference so clearly. Not that it matters because it's only a primer but I learned to do better job with the paint.

After primer...

I did all the work outside on our balcony because we do not have a garage (yet) and we had to bring it inside all the time because of unstable weather... rain, sun, rain, sun... NOT HEAVY at all!!!

I had bought a foam brush to finish the paint job instead of doing it with the brush. I am totally in love with the foam brushes and recommend them if you want to have a finish without brush streaks.
After 3 layers of paint I decided it was enough. I let it dry completely and after 2 days I finished it with Minwax paste finishing wax.

I am so proud of my transformation and even if it was a big job to do, I started a new project the next day...
Now this beautiful china cabinet really has gotten a second life as a more modern piece of furniture but still keeping it's ancient look.

My beautiful china cabinet!

Luckily I saved the old hardware because I start to bend towards them after all. I removed them because I thought they wouldn't fit my cabinet after I painted it white but I realize that they would give a more rustic charm to it. I can always use these new ones to another project... I'll put a picture of the new/old hardware so you can see how they are. Please, give me your opinion of what should I do? Keep the new or change back to the old?

Thank you again for reading and I'll post more transformations soon!
Have a good 4th of July my American sisters!
Ninja