From Butcher Block to Farmhouse Table

Bye-bye butcher block table and HELLO farmhouse table!

In the early 1990s (when Ryan and Emmy were toddlers) we moved into a house in Auburn, Alabama (War Eagle!) and bought this kitchen table from Sears. It served us through several moves and the stories it could tell from our two children growing up! Originally, it was a butcher block table with white legs; our son Ryan painted the legs black and used this for an art table/desk in his room while he was in high school.

Neal cut off the rounded edges of the butcher block top. In the picture below, you can see his initial cut on the left end of the table. Neal cut the rounded edges off on all four sides. He did this so the new wood top would hang over and the butcher block top would not be visible. Then we used leftover heart pine flooring from our lake house. Neal cut the boards the same length. Side Note: We updated this table on our porch patio before we added the outdoor fireplace (where the grill is in the picture) and wrapped the columns (see the old column behind Neal in the picture) and added barn wood to our porch ceiling. Here is a closeup of the wood ready to attach over the old butcher block top. I ❤️ this beautiful wood! Neal glued (using wood glue) and screwed the boards on the original butcher block top. Below is a picture of the underside of the table. Important Note: Our screws had to be long enough to go through the butcher block and the new heart pine wood, but not too long that the screws would come through the heart pine (i.e. top of the table). Notice in the picture below Neal added end pieces to give the table a finished look. Also, notice the legs have been chalk painted (but not sanded yet) over the black. Here is another closeup view after we sanded using a rotary sander. Sanding the table blended the different pieces of wood. ALWAYS sand in the same direction as the grain of the wood. Here is a picture once we finished. Notice that some of the chalk paint has been sanded off the legs and edges to reveal the black. This is the chalk paint I used on the side trim and table legs. I also used this on the edge of the butcher block that is exposed under the new tabletop. This is my favorite color! They call it primitive; it is sort of an oatmeal color. It goes with anything, which is why I use it so much.

To see other chalk paint projects using this color: Front porch bench Dresser

I put several coats of Minwax wipe-on poly on the tabletop to protect it. I used the same poly and the legs once I finished sanding the chalk paint.

Here is another picture. And another picture . . . Below is the finished table at our Pike Road home. We bought four black chairs (left in the picture) from Wayfair; they blended nicely with this table. Once we sold our Pike Road home and moved to our lake home full time, we gave this table to our daughter Emmy and our son-in-law Keith. They are now building a house and no longer need this table, so we are going to put it in our basement (at our lake house) and use it as a game table. Below are two more pictures of our farmhouse table at our Pike Road house.

This table was one of my favorite projects. I really like updating existing pieces of furniture. It turned out so beautiful!

Check out some of my other chalk painting blog posts:

• • How to Chalk Paint a Lamp
  • Vintage Bench Makeover
  • Dresser Makeover
  • How to Chalk Paint a Bench
  • How to Chalk Paint a Table
  • Green Chalk Paint Nightstand
  • Farmhouse Table (chalk painted legs)
  • How to Chalk Paint an Entertainment Center
  • How to Chalk Paint Picture Frames

Thanks for reading our blog post. Please give us feedback on our table transformation project by commenting below!

Happy Painting!