Our Much Loved and Abused Farmhouse Table

Our poor kitchen table has seen so much abuse love since we purchased it 13 years ago. It’s been the center of most of our family activities in three homes now and it has withstood all that we did to it.

Our beloved table was made by a Virginia based company, Hoskins Creek Table Company, and is 8ft long but only 33” wide. We bought such a long table to accommodate our girls and all of the friends they might bring home, believe it or not we fit 17 kids here one time! However, it was also our everyday family eating space, craft table, sewing table, homework table and even one time I caught a VERY bad Weimaraner sunning himself on it!

Here we are at our home in Montpelier, VA, celebrating the first of many birthdays that our table will see, it was only a few months old at this point and had yet to see any real abuse.

I know for a FACT when we moved into house number two in Short Pump, VA this table had dog claw marks on it (thanks to the aforementioned Weimaraner), glitter that wouldn’t come off (my bad) and more than a few blemishes from random acts. Still, it looked like a wonderfully worn table and we all loved it! This was the last birthday celebrated in this home before we moved to Kentucky and you can see the abuse clearly!

Here is the table once we were mostly settled in our Louisville, KY home. In order to keep the table we did have to “loose” one of the ends in order to maintain the flow from one room to the next, but the table fit well enough. If I’m being honest a smaller (probably round) table would have worked much better, but I just can’t bear to let this table and all of it’s memories go!

So here we are in 2015 and I am ready to change up the table, nothing drastic, just lighter colors and some new chairs. Our youngest daughter is 13 and way past the destructive stage, our Weimaraner who loved to sun himself on it passed away long ago and it’s just the three of us here now as the two older girls are either in college or have joined the working world. Anyway, most of the time we sit at the kitchen island to eat our meals and the poor table gets very little use these days.

So here it is with it’s fresh new update guaranteed to last for another 13 years!

First we removed the old wax finish and lightly sanded the table to remove some of the scratches, mainly the dog claw marks and the annoying blemishes.

The final grit we used on the sander was 220 which gives the table a perfectly smooth feel.

We then oiled the surface with Natural Watco Oil which allows the beauty of the wood to shine through. The final result is a table top that is about half as dark as the original finish.

After the oil had to time to do its thing we then waxed the surface with clear wax and buffed it to a beautiful sheen!

The combination of the oil and wax has restored the natural beauty and durability to this Southern Yellow Pine.

You can still see dents, marks and small scratches as evidence that this table has history, but gone are the glitter and truly ugly spots on the table.

For the base I painted it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old Ochre, did some light distressing, sealed it with clear wax and buffed it to a soft sheen. I really like the lighter feel of the table with this combination.

One of the other things I adore about this table is the “old world” craftsmanship that was used to build it. Wood peg joinery on the legs and old style nails to attach the top to the base really adds to the overall character of the piece.

I have all of the new chairs for this table primed and the seats reupholstered I just need to spray the final paint coat on them and they’ll be ready to go! Everything should be done just in time for Thanksgiving…

I will say that I’m so happy that we were able to keep this table and with just a little bit of work update it to fit our style today. Hopefully one day this table will be passed down to one of our girls who will enjoy watching her kids craft, play, eat and grow up using the same table she did as a child… the thought makes me well up with tears…

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time!