Painting our Table and Chairs

Wow, I finally got around to painting our dining room table and chairs. Let me tell you, that was quite the project!! But I am super pleased with the result. Here is what our table looked like before:


I liked it okay this way, but in our dining room and living room (which is like one giant room) we have used a lot of black to decorate and I have always wanted a black table! Well, after looking at how much a new one would cost, I decided to paint this one.
First I filled some spots on the table with wood filler. I didn't go crazy with this filling every little dent, but the noticeable ones I did. I probably spent about 20 minutes on this step. I am so glad that I took the time to do this, because now that the table is painted black, I realize you would be able to definitely see those dents that if I hadn't filled them.
Then, I sanded. I hate sanding, so I spent the majority of the time on the table top and the chair seats. Everything else, I just gave a once over. I probably spent about a half hour on this. Maybe less :)
Next I sprayed two coats of gray primer. I let it dry overnight, and realized I needed one more coat of primer, because I wanted to get every single spot covered, so there was no wood color showing. So, I went to the store real quick and grabbed a couple more cans.
Then, I started spraying it black. I could not decide whether I should spray paint the table and chairs or do it with a roller and brush. I am so glad I decided to spray paint. I HATE painting with a brush and roller! All the cleanup! With spraying, you can go out there, take about 20 minutes spraying, and then your done until the next coat. But, the one thing, is it did take many, many, many coats to finally get everything looking good. However, I would rather do many quick coats then wasting all my time cleaning brushes and rollers. I used Valspar Satin Black for like half of the coats and then Rustoleum Satin Black for the last half. Rustoleum is a dollar more expensive, but I could REALLY tell the difference! Rustoleum just covered more. It was all around better.
Then I put on 2 coats of Rustoleum High Performance Enamel in Gloss Black.
One thing I did different with this project than my other painting projects is that I got these little light sanding squares at Lowe's for just between coats. So whenever I went outside to paint, I ran these over the table real quick (it took like 30 seconds) just to make it as smooth as possible. It definitely made it super smooth!

Last I put on polyurethane.

I debated about this because here Kimba says she would skip this step because she didn't think it really made that much of a difference. Well, I decided to do it just to be safe, but I am so glad that I did! I have to disagree with my very favorite DIY girl! I'm sorry Kimba. :) I got the gloss polyurethane, and I absolutely love the finish that it left. It made a huge difference. I gave the table top and chair seats 2 coats, and everything else one coat. This was probably the most time consuming part of the process, but well worth it!
Here is the finished project! I love it!