KTgreen

Years ago we purchased an unfinished table from Ikea to serve as a coffee table in our TV room.  Three houses later, that little table moved out to the screen room and I added two kid-sized chairs.  Voila–instant child-size table set!

But many years went by and the set was looking pretty sad.  While the screened room is a covered area, rain still comes in when we have one of our typical Florida summer afternoon storms.  Another problem was that the table really wasn’t high enough for the chairs.  As the grandkids get bigger, they all had the same complaint–their legs didn’t  fit under the table.

So I went to my wizard and told him about the short legs.  Terry bought a cheap piece of pine 2×2 at Home Depot and cut it up to make new longer legs and replaced the short ones.  He liked the contrast of the natural legs with the darker table so we decided to go with it.  I’d been planning on painting a checkerboard on top of the table but then a lightbulb went off in my head!  (Hey, I didn’t even look at Pinterest to get this idea but I’m sure that it’s out there.) Finish the top with chalkboard paint!  The kids can draw or make their own checkerboard table!  Even better, I had plenty of paint left from the chalkboard I made for my kitchen! 

I just followed the directions to paint the top of the table and the top section of the chairs with the chalkboard paint.  Also refreshed the dark stain on the chairs and table sides with Minwax gelstain.  Put some golden oak stain that I had left over on the legs and followed up all the stained areas with a couple coats of Minwax Polyacrylic.

Addison was visiting during the refreshed table debut.  It was a hit!

The table is so tall now, even Grandma can use it!