Gathering for Dinner Around a Custom-Stenciled Dining Room Table

My mom found this dining table (with leaf) and 4 chairs at a thrift store in Omaha, NE. It’s size is great for our growing family, and I could see lots of potential in it. I love the look of the planks on top, but the yellow-orange outdated finish was already worn down, clearly needing a good sanding and new finish.

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Now it’s our dining room’s pièce de résistance! We sanded the table top (not too far down since it was a veneer), then added a custom-painted design on top, and applied a new stain in “Special Walnut.” The design was inspired by a few french-style stencils I saw online (no, I can’t take all the credit for the design!). I added our family’s name, our wedding anniversary, John 6:35 (“I am the Bread of Life”), and on the leaf I added the meal blessing. To add the design on top: I printed the design out on paper, colored a blank sheet of paper in pencil marks and placed it face down on the wood, then I placed the printed design on top and traced each letter transferring the pencil marks lightly onto the wood. Then, we painted the design, stained over it, sanded it to give it an antique look, then applied several coats of poly to seal the table. It’s now a piece that represents our family, our faith, and will be treasured for years to come!

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To tie the room together, I added a french-inspired stripe to the chairs and stools in the same lime green used on the hutch. We also sawed the legs off the stools to shorten them to chair height. Finally, I added a nice gray fabric I found for $4 in the clearance section of the fabric store to replace the imitation leather-covered chair cushions! I love how they turned out! The cream-colored paint (same as wall color) on the chairs and table legs definitely brightens up a room with a lot of natural, darker wood.

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9 Responses

  1. Liz Costin

    Your dining set turned out beautifully.
    The table top is just lovely.
    I have one that need new life.
    This is a great inspiration.
    Following for more wonderful ideas!

    • Sarah

      Hi Angel! (SO sorry for the delayed response!!) Thank you for the compliment! I did a lot of searching on Pinterest to find designs I liked. I knew I wanted to put our family name and special details representing our family, and I knew I would need to design my own stencil to get what I wanted. There are lots of pins on Pinterest from people who design actual plastic-y stencils you can trace with. I ended up creating mine in Photoshop using pieces of designs I liked, and then I printed it out on multiple sheets of paper, pieced it together, and transferred it onto my table. Take a look at this post…this is the technique I used on the table…
      https://finkfamilyfarm.com/diy-ruler-growth-chart
      Hope this helps!

  2. Amy

    I know this is a long shot, but do you by any chance have a template that I would be able to use to personalize this?! I absolutely love this design.

    • Sarah

      Hi Amy! Sorry for the delayed response (just had baby #2 last month, whew!). I’m so glad you like it. I can’t take credit for the entire design…some of the small decorative elements I saw online as I was trying to figure out what I wanted in my own layout. So I wish I had a shareable template that I could easily manipulate for you, but I don’t. I’d encourage you to draw and layout a design you like (on paper and blow it up or on the computer if you are tech savvy) and use this tutorial to make a budget-friendly, simple-to-use transferable “template” of your own (I didn’t use any fancy transfer paper!)…https://finkfamilyfarm.com/diy-ruler-growth-chart

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