Butcher Block Table

Painted furniture is a huge trend right now; but that doesn’t mean that every piece of wood furniture should be painted. Wood in itself is beautiful and sometimes maintaining that beauty is more important than following the current trend.

Painting furniture is what I do and what I love to do. It relaxes me. I began painting furniture several years ago, when family and friends passed their used furniture on to me, particular outdoor furniture. I think many of them wanted them back when they saw how I transformed them with a fresh coat of paint.

Since those early years, I’ve saved tons of pieces from their doom. I enjoy the challenge of saving furniture that’s been left in a thrift shop, selling at a yard sale, or destined for the dump and bringing it back to life. Wood that’s scratched and dented can be filled and sanded. Wood veneer can be repaired and painted to look like it’s never been chipped. In most cases, if I use wood filler to repair a piece of furniture, then it has to be painted to cover the patch – and that’s ok.

Yet not every wood piece requires such extensive repair work. Wood is incredibly durable and sanding it down will remove dirt, stains, and scratches. If that’s the case, either leaving the natural wood or using a stain to highlight the natural wood grain is a better choice.

Such was the case with this butcher block table.

Yes, this kitchen table was dirty from years of use but the butcher block wood was in perfect condition once I removed the original polyurethane.

Here’s the table before. As you can see, the base was already painted white, so it only made sense to update it with a fresh coat.

I opted for a black enamel on the base and legs as this is not only a nice small kitchen table that will seat four, but it’s also the perfect size to be used as a desk and black gives it the versatility to move from kitchen to office.