From Butcher Block to Farmhouse Table

Bye-bye butcher block table and HELLO farmhouse table! We updated our old butcher block table by adding heart pine wood as a new top and gave it a farmhouse feel and chalk painted the legs. In this post, we will show you the steps of how we transformed our butcher block table into a farmhouse table

History of this Table:

In the early 1990s (when our children 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. Also, I apologize that we don’t have more detailed pictures. We did this project before we had a blog.

Here is the original butcher block table.

Cutting Edge of Butcher Block

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.

Cutting Pine Boards:

Then we used leftover heart pine flooring from our lake house. Neal cut the boards the same length.

Side Note: We have updated our porch since this photo. See our porch transformation.

Here is a closeup of the wood ready to attach over the old butcher block top.

I love this beautiful wood!

Installing Wood on the Tabletop

Neal glued (using wood glue) and screwed the boards to 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).

Adding End Pieces of Wood

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.

Sanding

Neal 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.

Chalk Paint and Sand

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.

primitive chalk paint

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. I sanded to reveal the under color black paint.

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

Polyurethane

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.

Finished Table

We bought four black chairs (left in the picture) from Wayfair; they blended nicely with this table.

This table was one of my favorite projects. I like updating existing pieces of furniture. It turned out so beautiful! Here it is in the basement at our lake house.

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

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Thanks for reading our blog post. Please give us feedback on transforming our butcher block table to a farmhouse table by commenting below!

Happy Painting!