Easy DIY Pedestal Table Makeover

If you’ve been a long time reader or even a new IG follower, then you definitely know my love for styling clothes runs deep. What you may not know, is that I’ve always found pleasure in DIY projects. Maybe it’s the similarities between hunting for that perfect outfit to piece together, and the feeling of excitement I get when looking at an old tabletop and thinking – I can make this better.

Which is precisely what happened when I convinced my husband to hold onto a dining table that his parents bought back when they were newlyweds. Over the past 17 years, this table has moved from TX to NYC, NYC to LA, and back to TX! It may have lost its legs and leaf somewhere along the way, but I just knew someday we’d have a home of our own for it.

We’ve been living in our first home for 5 years now, and finally decided it was time to create that breakfast nook I’ve always wanted. We tossed around the idea a few years back about having Grant’s dad build us a pedestal base for the tabletop, but in true DIY fashion – I just had a feeling I might be able to find one we could refurbish. So literally 10 minutes on Facebook Marketplace, and I’d found one closeby that actually matched our table perfectly & they only wanted $80 for it.

While Grant went to pick it up, I did some Pinterest browsing and found a few blog posts for inspiration. A lot of people go with a white, antiqued look for the base but we both agreed – between kids and a dog, dark was the way to go. So we made a quick trip to Lowe’s and stocked up on the essentials – wood filler, sanding paper, paintbrushes, stain, furniture paint and polyurethane top coat (products all linked below). Read on for our step by step process that only took a few days and some minor assembly with the help of Grant’s dad “the master carpenter” – sorry, he’s not for hire 😉

Tabletop Makeover

Step 1: Sand down to bare wood with a handheld orbital sander. Use varying grits of sand paper – start with roughest, and then end with smoothest. My husband also swiped a small amount of Jasco easy liquid sander/de-glosser to get any remaining coating removed.

Step 2: Check for blemishes/gauges & treat with Minwax Wood filler – this part was a family affair and our kids always get so excited to help with DIY projects. Once wood filler has dried, smooth it out by sanding it down by hand.

Step 3: Add two coats of preferred stain – we used Minwax semi-transparent wood stain in “Early American.” I have to admit, there was a little bit of contention on the stain – I wanted more gray and he wanted a light brown. But we always come around and I ended up loving it 😊

Step 4: This was definitely the more time intensive bit of the whole process – to which I gladly let the hubs handle haha. He ended up having to apply several coats of polyurethane top coat – Lowe’s recommended Minwax Polycrylic clear-semi gloss top coat. You’ll want to sand in between each coat very lightly until you’re pleased with the finish.

Pedestal Assembly

Repeat Steps 1-2 above: Wood filler + minimal sanding just to rough it up a bit before painting.

Step 3: Apply 2 coats of paint – Lowe’s recommended Valspar’s Cabinet & Furniture Indoor/Outdoor satin finish and we decided on a flat black for the base.

Step 4: After letting the paint dry for a day, I went back and used my handy-dandy sanding paper to antique/distress the finish as desired. I used the finest grit paper we had and just ran it lightly over the edges and corners of the base, alternating as I went around.

Step 5: The final step was to assemble the base to the tabletop. This was a bit tricky since the table and base weren’t originally assembled together, and Grant had to remove all of the old hardware from underneath the tabletop before we stained it. So luckily his dad has his own tool shop/carpenters paradise where he custom made a square wooden base that attached to the bottom of our table and screwed in perfectly with the pedestal.

You can see the whole process from start to finish by watching the video below & comment any questions or suggestions on what our next DIY project should be!