I have to apologize for taking so many months off from posting. Sometimes life just intervenes but there's something big to post. I've finally, after months of working on it, am done refinishing our dining room set. I could have had it done faster but the chairs wore me out and it took me a while to make myself get at the table. It's all worth it now and makes me happy every time I go by the dining room.
The first step was deciding on the color. I knew I was using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint so was trying to decide what color would work best. I had Old White, French Linen (a type of gray although some have said it's taupe), or Graphite which is a dark charcoal. I found some great photos online and was really torn although decided against Old White almost right away because it wasn't the look I was going for. French Linen is a really nice color and I thought it was the way I was going to go but I really like the Pottery Barn look with their black furniture so decided to go with Graphite. The only other choice was whether to paint the inside top of the China Cabinet white or gray so will talk about why I picked what I did when I get there.
I decided to start with the chairs because I knew they'd be the hardest. I did a test chair because I wanted to see if I liked the Graphite and didn't want to waste any of the paint which ended up being a good thing. With the honey oak, it was fine to just clean the furniture and then start painting after it dried. Some stains will bleed so you'll have to use a coat of Shellac to seal it. I used a variety of brushes including a round one but ended up preferring my Wooster 3" and Purdy 2" brushes. They clean well and leaves a nice finish. Other people swear by Annie Sloan brushes but I didn't want to make that investment. It took 2 coats to completely cover. It was a bit of a back breaker because I had to paint the bottom/underneath part on the table and then paint the seat and back on the floor (all using a drop cloth of course). The chairs weren't hard to paint but the spindles take a long time. After both coats were dry, I had to wax. For the chairs I did 1 coat of clear wax and then 1 coat of dark. There are lots of instructions on-line for applying wax and I think I watched all of them. I used a wax brush in the beginning but later switched to applying by rags. After about 24 hours you come back and buff it. I just used a rag and the purpose wasn't to get it shiny but just finished. Overall I was happy with the chairs and ready to take a break.
The table was the one I worried about the most and ended up being the easiest. I went back and forth on whether to paint or stain and ended up going with the stain. I was originally going to try something where you didn't have to actually strip the finish but I tried it on the matching Lazy Susan and it ended up being too dark and opaque for me. I bought two stains and tested on a small piece of oak trim I bought and ended up preferring the gray. Al had bought me a palm sander for Christmas so thought it would work for sanding down the finish instead of using a stripper. Big mistake. Al kindly did it for me one Saturday I was at work and it took him most of the day. I'd use a non-toxic stripper such as CitriStrip if I were to do something like this again. Then you just have the light sanding at the end. You want it down to bare wood when staining. It turned out that there was a scratch and some flaws that wouldn't take the stain that you couldn't see until later but nothing major. The staining was the easy part. I used Minwax Classic Gray after testing it and Weathered Oak on a piece of oak wood. I just wiped it on with a cloth and then left on for a short time before wiping off. I let dry and then did another coat. I was happy with that because I wasn't looking for a dark finish. I then did 4 coats of a polycrylic with light sanding in between. I chose General Finishes High Performances in Satin which cost more but levels out beautifully. The table base was easy with 2 coats of paint and then I just mixed some clear and dark wax and did one coat.
The China Cabinet wasn't too bad to paint/wax. I decided I needed a lighter paint for the inside of the hutch part so chose French Linen which is a light gray and I thought it would coordinate with the table top. I painted that part first and used 1 coat of clear wax. The tricky part was the wood edge on the glass shelves. The rest was in Graphite and I used the dark/clear wax mix for it. I took off all the hardware and glass to be able to paint everywhere. Lastly I bought new brushed chrome handles that look good with the new colors.
Sorry this is so long. It was a big job but well worth it for the change it made in the set. I didn't know how it would turn out but I knew I wouldn't get a lot of money for our set and it is solid wood so seemed worth the try. I didn't like the color anymore and the dining set was so tired but not anymore. It's amazing what a little paint and a lot of effort can do to make it go from dated to fresh and new again.