The Finishing Touches - Kitchen
Kitchen Table
The kitchen table was definitely a steal. I spotted it at Canal Street Antique Mall in Lawrence, MA (definitely a must see place). I had been looking for a nice small pedestal table that could be refinished. We originally had a nice rectangle table from our apartment prior to being homeowners but it just never seemed to fit right in the new space. It was too big for the space and there is only two of us in the house. I wanted a nice small round pedestal that came with a leaf so we could have a bigger table when needed. I was strolling through one of the shops in Canal Street and there it was. It was a perfect size and the style was simple. There was a sign on it that said 25% and the shop owner happened to be there. As I stood there discussing the purchase with my husband and mother the owner just kept offering the table at a lower and lower price. As he hit $50, I was sold and it was going home with me. The original plan was to remove the finish on the top and re-stain the top a lighter color and paint the base a nice white using my favorite, milk paint. As we started to sand the finish off the top the plan had to quickly change. As we sanded we realized that the table was not solid wood, it was veneer and was now showing the wood chips under the veneer in some places around the edge of the table. So I continued with the plan on painting the base white and to hide the imperfections on the top I was going to just paint a white circle around the edge of the table top. When looking closely at the top you could see that the top was sectioned out with wedges of wood. After I painted the circle I didn’t love it and decided to continue and made a pattern on the top instead. I LOVE the outcome. To finish the table I did the topcoat for the milk paint on the base but for the top, since it would be heavily used and wiped down, I decided to go over the top with 3 coats of polyurethane. To this day, 4 years or so later, there is no nicks in the top or base of the table. To make things easier I decided to buy a set of chairs from Target and the colors matched perfectly.
Shiplap, Shiplap, Shiplap
The other final touch that I decided to do was wrap the bump out part of the cabinets with shiplap. I wanted the shiplap to have an aged barn wood feel to them. I achieved this look by using a few different methods and mix and matching them to get a non-uniformed look. So the first thing I did was soak steel wool in a glass mason jar with white vinegar. Some people prefer apple cider vinegar but I have stuck with white vinegar and have had consistent results. In the next mason jar I put hot water and steeped black tea bags. It depends on the size jar you have but I used about 6 for the one quart jar. Leave both jars soaking for at least 24 hours. The longer you let them sit though the darker the color you will get. SO if you are looking for a lighter color I would use it right around the 24 hour mark. I had 6 12 foot shiplap boards to play with. I did all types of combinations. One I would do all tea, one I would do all vinegar, one 1 coat of tea and 2 coats of vinegar and vice versa. I also added some grey stain to one of the boards before adding the tea and vinegar. Once I was happy with all the results on the boards we trimmed out the bump out with a white boarder painted to match the cabinets. From there we fit the shiplap inside the trim to have a somewhat herringbone pattern (yes, I know, the shorter side should be the opposite angle :) oops!).
This, I believe, concludes the kitchen renovation up until this point. If you see anything in the pictures you would like more info on feel free to let me know. There will be a new project for the kitchen starting soon. If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen the beautiful marble top wash stand I bought off of Facebook Marketplace. This piece will soon become part of the kitchen as well and I am super excited to start work on it.
