Hate Your Kitchen Table? Here's What To Do About It

How's your kitchen table looking these days? 

If you happen to live in a busy household, (like me), and your kitchen is the main hub of that household, (like me), and you bought a really inexpensive, okay, I admit it, cheap, pine table years ago from IKEA, (like me), your table may no longer be looking its best. And that's probably an understatement.

It probably has marks, scratches and impressions of long ago homework etched into its surface. 

It's not very happy.

Time for a makeover. An easy makeover. A makeover with personality, pizazz and a touch of personalization.

Think hand prints. But not your red, blue, yellow preschool-like hand prints. Think metallic hand prints. Now, I'm not against primary color hand prints, but they get old quickly. Especially when your kids keep growing. If you're going to invest a bit of time giving your table a makeover, you might as well do something that will stand the test of time. And you don't get sick of.

Here's my table. I did it years ago, and I'm still happy with it. The chairs are from IKEA also, I just covered the seats with fabric and a bit of padding.

The finished table. Interesting - right?

Here's how to do it. And it's not hard. I worked outside so I wouldn't have to worry about dust & fumes.

1. Sand the table slightly to get rid of any sealer on top.
2. If you want a color other then the table color, paint the top. I used a light green wash. You can see it on the edges.
3. Decide on a focal point - I used a napkin. It's the red circle thing in the picture. I simply put a bit or polyurethane on the table, then put the napkin down. I smoothed it with a paint brush.
4. Call the kids one at a time. Paint their hands with any paint you want - just make sure it is acrylic or latex. Something that is permanent once it's dry. 
5. Make some hand prints. We also did fingerprints around the napkin.
6. Let dry.
7. If your table opens up for a leaf, carefully cut the napkin along the opening with a razor blade.
8. Coat the entire table top with polyurethane.
9. Let dry.
10. Coat it again.
11. Let dry.

That's it! Your old worn out table is ready to live again. And as your kids get older, they get a kick out of seeing how much bigger their hands have grown.

Want to really think outside the box? Don't use your kid's hand prints - use your pets. I guarantee your table will be one of a kind. And if you do that, take a picture and send it to me - I'd love to see that!

be organized & happy.....evelyn cucchiara

P.S. - Hey - I'm starting something new! In addition to my once a week blog posts (leave your email in the box on the right next to the title if you want to get them automatically), I'm going to start sending out a quick happiness idea every Friday morning. Want to be in the club that gets them? Shoot me an email at: evelyn@organizingwithevelyn.com. First one will be tomorrow!