I swear, this site might need to be renamed Why I Love Chalk Paint.

This last week I tackled our dining room table. We’re gearing up for a DIY kitchen remodel and one of the things on my list to do was paint our dining room table. I got it, plus chairs that have since splintered, for around $100. The big draw was that with two leaves it extends to around 93″. This is super important for holidays and our weekly game nights. I always envisioned having a table big enough to squeeze everyone around, and this has really lived up to my dreams. It’s just… not really meshing with our aesthetic. So, paint it was!

Now I can hear some of you screaming at me. It’s a wooden table! How could I? Why not sand and stain it?

Because, yo, I’m lazy and have deadlines. Plus, I wanted something with more solid coverage.

This time around I splurged on a quart of Anne Sloan chalk paint in Graphite. It wasn’t as black as what I used to do my nightstand make-over. It’s much more gray, which goes with our overall house theme, and is actually pretty close to the base color on the walls. The quart covered the table twice, which I was a little worried about since I typically do three coats, but it turned out pretty awesome.

We let the table sit for a few hours before making the real, final call on if the paint covered enough to call this phase done.

Unlike previous projects where I used a wax coat at the end, we wanted a hardier, glossier final coat. Since we’re about to do the kitchen cabinets, I opted to go with the same semi-gloss polyurethane coat I’ll be using on those. Three coats of poly and a lot of cat wrangling later, the dining nook had a completely different look and feel from when we first moved in. From gold fixtures and brown on yellow paint, to glossy grays, turquoise, and red with chrome, it’s a whole different space!