Patriotic Table Makeover

Summer has definitely arrived!  My kids may still have a few of weeks left in school (we have the longest school year), but our chilly spring has warmed up dramatically.  For my family, that means lots of grilling.  You see, we have this crazy Aga stove in our kitchen that came with our house.  If you’re not familiar with them, check out my Pinterest board to see what I’m talking about.  The thing with this oven is that it’s always on, like 24/7, and it really heats up the entire kitchen.  It’s awesome in the winter, but now that it’s in the high 80s our kitchen stays in the low 90s with the air conditioner on.  So, we turn off the oven for the summer and exclusively use our grill for cooking meals.

I’ve been on the lookout for some sort of table that we can use outside for some extra countertop space (since we basically turn our grilling area into an outdoor kitchen for the summer), and I recently came across this table at my local Goodwill that had a ton of potential.  It was a little dark and the top had some damage, but it has this cute wicker skirt and legs that were just screaming for a makeover.  And, it was only $10!  Score!  I thought it would be fun to give it a little patriotic flair combined with our monogram since we love to host BBQs for Memorial Day and the 4th of July.

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience.  Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

The first thing I did was sand down the top a bit to see how bad the damage was.  It really wasn’t too bad, and since I decided to paint it, I just used some wood filler to fill in the cracks and indentations.  Once the filler dried, I sanded it smooth.

Next, I primed it with my favorite spray primer B-I-N by Zinsser.  I used 2 coats and sanded after each coat.  In the non-spray form, this primer is a little more difficult to clean up than other primers (you have to use denatured alcohol), but you don’t have to worry about that with the spray, and its sands down to a powder in less than an hour drying time.  It gives you an ultra-smooth base to start painting in no time at all.  I was able to get 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint done in less than a day with this table.

I used navy blue as my base color for the top.  Since this was such a small project I only used half of an 8 oz. paint sample from Home Depot.  They only cost a few dollars, and their Marquee indoor/outdoor enamel worked great.

I cut the stencil for the top out of contact paper (or you can use stencil film) using my Silhouette Cameo You can download the Silhouette cut file here).  Once I had the stencil placed where I wanted it on the table I used a small artist’s paintbrush to fill in the areas of the stencil with red and white paint.

After the top had time to dry, I covered it with paper and taped it off to spray paint the apron and legs.  First, I vacuumed them off really well, and then I cleaned them with a TSP substitute to make sure there wasn’t anything on them to keep the paint from sticking.  I used Rust-oleum’s Painter’s Touch in Satin Blossom White.

The last thing I did to the table was to seal it with several coats to the top of spar urethane.  Spar urethane is similar to polyurethane, but it can be used outdoors.  I left the apron and legs alone since I’ve had good luck with spray paint holding up well outdoors.

This turned out to be a really fun project, and I’m so excited to have some extra table space for our BBQs.  It already got some use over the Memorial Day weekend, and I’m sure it will be in constant use all summer.

Don’t forget to download the cut file if you’re a Silhouette user.  Even if you’re not doing a table makeover there are so many other great ways to use it on your Memorial Day or 4th of July patriotic decor.  I’d love to see how you use it, so please tag me @ahometogrowoldin if you do!

If You Like It, Pin it…

SaveSave