A Vintage Dining Table Flip with a Personal Story

Some furniture flips are just about aesthetics and style, but this antique oak dining table flip carried a deeper meaning for me. This wasn’t just any table—it once belonged to a close family friend, someone I used to visit often as I was growing up, and even in my adult years. I can still carry fond memories of sitting at that table, sharing stories and snacks, and feeling a sense of home and comfort. So when the opportunity came to bring this table back to life, I knew it would be something special.

More Than a Makeover – A Tribute

This dining table flip wasn’t just about furniture. It was a chance to honor the people and memories that shaped my childhood. Mr. Jackson was a big part of my upbringing, and our families share special life moments together. I even came across this photo from my wedding day – you can see my hand on his shoulder. Mr. Jackson was a special man, and I am honored that we got to create a new fresh start for this set – in honor of him! He was strong, but so gentle. He had a servants hard and that made him a great leader. I would often stay at the Jackson’s house if my parents were out of town so there were countless game nights, dinners around this table, and in the morning I would walk down and see Mr. or Mrs. Jackson reading their Bible’s at this table.

After he passed away, Mrs. Jackson wanted to see if I would bring this set back to life. Mr. Jackson would have wanted me to. In his quiet way, he’d look at me and smile and say “it looks great honey, I’m so proud of you”. I just know he would if he were here right now. We miss you Mr. Jackson, but your love and spirit will always live on in me and countless others.

Prepping a Piece Full of Memories

This table had been well-loved over the years, but it was structurally sound, so giving it a refresh would be pretty smooth. Our only challenges were dealing with worn edges and an outdated finish. Underneath, I could see a fresh and sturdy beauty awaiting revival. Here are some pictures of the table and chairs before.

A Bold Black Table with a Warm Wood Top

For the table base, I chose a rich, black paint with a light distressing to give it a mix of modern tones & the timeless appeal of a table that has shared experiences with you. For the tabletop, we sanded it down and applied a medium stain that highlighted the natural grain. The result? A stunning contrast of sleek black and warm, rustic wood—a perfect blend of old and new.

Rustic White Chairs to Complete the Look

The six chairs were each painted in a soft white with a lightly distressed, rustic finish. The worn edges and brushed texture give them a farmhouse charm that pairs beautifully with the stained tabletop. Not only do they brighten up the set, but they also add that cozy, welcoming vibe I remember so vividly from my visits as a kid. And I love how they perfectly contrast with the table while completing the design with shared rustic elements.

Dining tables and chairs DO NOT have to match to create good design. Sometimes using a little contrast is exactly the right way to elevate the look.

Pro tip from the Design Team

Final Thoughts: Creating Beauty with Meaning

Flipping furniture is always rewarding, but when the piece has a personal history, the reward is even greater. This project reminded me how powerful design can be—not just visually, but emotionally. If you’re considering your own vintage dining table flip, don’t be afraid to embrace the memories as part of the transformation. You might just end up with a masterpiece that tells your story. I love how this turned out! Check out the after photos of this beautiful set.

Style your home

Vintage Farmhouse Dining Set by FunCycled

Bring this gem home today. Get all the dimensions and purchasing details below.

Shop Here

Customized Dining at Home

For more tips and inspiration on furniture flips, check out our Pinterest Board, linked below.

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture at the top of this page. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

We offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ; )

Exquisite Spaces. Sustainable Designs. Brighter Futures.

Note: some of the the links provided are affiliate links, and as an Amazon Associate, I earn from any qualifying purchases.

Hi, friends!

If you struggle with pulling ideas together, this post is for you! When our client, Sandy, reached out to us, she asked us to help pull all of her ideas and various pieces of her project together. And just what was her idea? To use reclaimed barn wood as a table top for a new (much friendlier) dining table for her family! For the better part of five years, Sandy had a vision to use 200 year old boards from her barn as a table top to replace her current (not so useful) high-top table.

Sandy is a creative person and she could imagine the end result, but she was lacking a couple of things: first, she needed the right base to accompany the (what she knew would be) gorgeous top; second, she needed to find some new chairs that would work with her vision; and finally, she needed someone to get the project done. Well, as things would work out, Sandy scored the perfect base for her table. Sure it was in rough shape, but it was sturdy…it just needed the right top! (This is where the barn wood comes in!) So Sandy reached out to us and got her project rolling.

Shortly after meeting with us, Sandy sent an email and shared that she found some cool, vintage chairs that would work perfectly. Just like the base, the chairs were sturdy but needed a refresh. With the pieces in place, we got to work!

Before Photos

On the left you will see the base that she found second hand. It was a little scuffed up, but the base was well constructed and was sturdy. Similarly, the chairs (one shown on the right) were in pretty good shape with just a few scuffs, but solid in construction. Now that Sandy had all of the pieces, it was time to pull together her ideas into a plan of action!

A really neat part of completing a project

Bonus: Using Reclaimed Wood

It is important to understand that if you have or are considering using any kind of reclaimed wood as Sandy did with her barn wood, you need to know a few things:

• Condition – assess the integrity of the wood; does it have so many splits that it will not be functional?
• Prepped Appropriately – make sure the wood has been dried out and has been cleaned/cleared of any mites or small bugs that would potential damage the wood or would be harmful if not remediated; consider having the wood milled to ensure smooth and consistent lines.
• Ensure the Finish – you do not necessarily need to finish reclaimed wood, but it does depend on where/how it is going to be used. Be sure you double check with a professional to see if it should be sealed or oiled.

And now the after photos.

Just take a look at the top of the table. In working with Sandy, she was able to identify and communicate to us the edges she was hopeful to keep in tact as well as the spot of character she desired to have part of the finished top. We were able to incorporate and preserve those details and incorporate them into the design and finished outcome. It is stunning!

Benjamin Moore Black

For Sandy’s project, we left the wood as is. It did not need to be sealed since Sandy had a glass top to put on it. Adding glass is a great way to keep things protected while enjoying the ability to see the beautiful wood. And, again, Sandy already had the glass, so she was able to reuse yet another piece to this project!

We used Benjamin Moore Black for the chairs and table base and distressed both so the details and history of each could be honored.

Here’s a picture of the newly customized table and refreshed chairs back at home. Oh, and Sandy also found some vintage Cushman chairs to accompany the set we customized for her. Due to the rareness of the Cushman chairs, Sandy chose to keep them in their original form. We love the combination of new mixed with old!

I love the table! It looks amazing at night with the reflection from the glass. It turned out beautiful!

Sandy – Cohoes, NY

There isn’t really anything to NOT LOVE about this story, but what makes my heart smile a little more is how beautifully all of the components came together! Sandy reused and repurposed and stayed patient to watch her new table and chairs come to life! Right?! Doesn’t it just make you happy!

Thanks, Sandy, for choosing FunCycled for this project! We are so excited for your “new” table and chairs and hope they will be a place where many treasured memories are made!

If you have a piece of furniture and would like us to restore life back into it, contact me today by visiting our Contact Us page! You can also learn more about our process on our Custom Furniture Painting Page.

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

We offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Note some of the the links provided are affiliate links, and as an Amazon Associate, I earn from any qualifying purchases.

Hi Friends! 

I hope you all had a great weekend! If you remember last week’s blog post, I was helping lead the Bloom event for our church this past weekend. What a success-over 400 women came out for a day of fun and living our best lives! We laughed, we cried, and had an absolute blast! Here’s a photo of me and my girlie, making the most of every moment!

Thanks, everyone, for coming out! Can’t wait until next time! : )

If you can’t view the photos on this blog, click here.

In today’s Tuesday’s Treasure, I want to bust the myth that in order to update your home, you must get rid of everything you have in your home and begin with everything new. Sometimes we get bogged down by thinking we have to make huge changes in our homes to create impact and make things more “up to date.” The fact is this way of thinking is just not true. Maybe you are not sure where to begin or how to go about this, but I am here to help!

Here is an easy example of adding little updates to your home. Just like in this photo, you can use every day items to create special moments in any space! This particular inspiration is quick and easy to achieve. In case you missed it, check out the post here.

On a larger scale, making the most of your items is important when achieving updates. In a recent project, I want to share with you how we took one client’s dining table and transformed it into something more updated, giving her dining room a fresh new look!

And here’s the newly updated table! We took the outdated style, sanded and refinished with Valspar’s Sunbleached stain and added a protective clear coat to keep the table protected for years to come!

Take a look at this before photo. The style of the table worked fine, but the stain was all wrong and needed a fresh look.

A huge thanks to Eileen for hiring us to do this dining table refinish.

What a beautiful transformation!! 

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

We offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,

Sarah ;)

Hi Friends!

My friend, Carrie, hired us to paint her kitchen cabinets a few years ago and since then she’s been planning out her next project; a beautiful sunroom addition. She loves plants and wanted to enjoy all of the sunshine and give her plants a place to thrive.

As she was planning out the furniture and decorations, she decided she wanted a table that could easily expand when needed, but be small most of the time and have character. She saw this table on France and Son, but it was out of her budget for the space:

https://franceandson.com/products/synodic-swedish-dining-table

So we both started searching Facebook marketplace to find something antique and similar until Carrie found this table:

Pretty close if I do say so myself! So she brought the table to us and had us paint it Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore.

If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. 

Ready for the afters?

Oh, and if you’re wondering where we found the chairs, you can get them here.

Seeeee it can save you money by repurposing! It’s good for the environment; all while creating a story you’ll never forget.

Carrie knocked it out of the park with her porch makeover! I couldn’t love it more!

This table was done as a custom order so it’s not for sale, but I still wanted to share the transformation. Be sure to visit our SHOP page to see what pieces we do have available for purchase. Or contact us to get a quote to let us redo your furniture for you! 

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

We offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Hi Friends!

How was your weekend? We had a great weekend at home and I was able to check off the list another one of my 40 new experiences before I turn 40! I went to a ring making class at Sawtooth Jewlers and made my own ring with my friends Heather and Aubrey! It was so much fun!! If you’re looking for something different to try with a friend, I recommend this!

For this week’s Tuesday’s Treasures, I wanted to share a kitchen table makeover that we recently did for a client who had us redo her kitchen. While I was there she said, once we do this kitchen, the table isn’t going to look right. How about we redo that, too!! Perfect plan to me!

Here’s the table before:

When a table set is sturdy and just the right size, that’s the time I recommend giving it an update instead of replacing it. So we sanded the top and stained it with Classic Gray, primed and painted the chairs and legs Benjamin Moore’s color Black. We also added sprayed it with a protective clear coat.

If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. 

Ready for the afters?

This set was done as a custom order so it’s not for sale, but I still wanted to share the transformation. Be sure to visit our SHOP page to see what pieces we do have available for purchase. Or contact us to get a quote to let us redo your furniture for you! 

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

We offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Hi Friends!

I hope you all had a great weekend! We enjoyed a weekend with some church and fall festivities and, of course, enjoyed our new puppy, June!

For this week’s makeover, I wanted to share a dining room design that I did for a whole house remodel recently. Our clients, Jen and Mike, were so wonderful to work with. They bought a house, but didn’t love how outdated it was. Jen loves a farmhouse feel and wanted the house to feel brand new.

The section that used to be a dining room was going to be converted into a larger kitchen so we wanted to convert the sitting room into a dining room.

This is the first room you see as you walk into the house so we wanted to keep it clean, simple, and beautiful.

Here’s the room before:

I started by creating a design board for the space so Jen could see how everything worked together in the room:

If you hire me for a design consult, these boards come with a link to click on and oder each project.

Then I worked with her contractor to go over the finishes. In this room, we also custom built their farmhouse table and repurposed their china cabinet.

Porch.com just recently asked us for some tips on redoing furniture. You can check that post out here.

Ready for the after photos?

Isn’t it so beautiful?!? 

Would you like help redesigning your home? Let me help you with the design! Check out more details about our Interior Design Services. 

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

We offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Hi Friends,

How are you? I hope your week is going well! I just wanted to take a quick break this week to show you a new table style we are offering. I absolutely love the legs on this table and we did a unique finish where we burned the table in parts to give it an authentically old look. It’s such as show stopper!

For this finish, we stained the first coat with Early American and the Second Coat Antique White by Minwax. If you’d prefer it to be more of a brown tone, just add another coat of Early American stain over top. Then we sealed the whole thing with two sprays of a protective clear coat.

Here’s what it looked like after we built it and burned it, but before we stained it:

You can order this table in a size custom built to fit your space. If you’d like to order it, please use our Contact Us form to request a quote for the size you’re looking for.

Thank you all for following along! If you’d like to get this blog in your email once a week, please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

If you’ve enjoyed this post, please like FunCycled on  Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest if you don’t already. Keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We share fun tutorials, great before and after, and new design inspirations. 

We offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and repurposed furniture. Thank you, again, for working with us and for taking the time to spread the word about what we do. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

Hi Friends!

How’s your week going? We have been busy, busy over here! This weekend, John started refinishing the floors at the new #funcycledstays airbnb which means we are one step further on it. I did more painting with Harmony while Josh assembled furniture…. then he hid in the box to surprise us.

We also had a beautiful day as a family celebrating father’s day!

For this week’s makeover, I wanted to show you a table and chair set that didn’t go together, but we painted to work together and give one of our design clients a mid century feel on a budget.

Here’s the table and chairs before:

We sanded down the top of the table and stained it with Early American Stain by Minwax. We painted the base and the chairs with black enamel and clear coated the whole thing. If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. Here are the after:

This table was done as a custom order so it’s not available to purchase on our website or in our store now, but you can also check out even more new pieces on our For Sale page:

• 

  Long Mid Century Dresser

Please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

If you like what you see, please like FunCycled’s Facebook page to keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We also offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and furniture. We can deliver for customers in upstate NY and also help you ship throughout the US. Send us a note with what you would like using our contact page. Or buy something that we’ve already designed from our online shop.

Hi Friends!

How are you? I know this has been a tough week for NYS. So many sick, so many deaths, and life just doesn’t look like normal right now. We’re in this together… one day at a time my friends. The joy of the Lord really is our strength right now. That’s the beauty of having a relationship with Christ. The hard days feel doable and joy can survive even when things seem to be crumbling around us. So thankful for that!

In light of all the changes, I wanted to let you know about three specials that we are running through the month of April. If you purchase any of our furniture pieces online, we will deliver them for free (up to 30 minutes from our store).

Because we can no longer do in person design consults, I’m now offering online consults. We’ll be using Facetime or Skype to walk through the rooms you’d like help with. Then I’d email you ideas as we talk to show you colors, finishes, and designs. I can also pick out products with you and send you links of what you should order.

Another change is that you can now purchase some of our most common signs online and have them shipped to your home. Anywhere in the US! Or schedule curbside pick up at our store to skip the shipping cost.

For this week’s furniture makeover, we’re sharing a table set that we redid as a custom order. Here’s the table and chairs before:

We painted the chairs and table base with Benjamin Moore’s Black Enamel. Here’s a picture of it because you may have trouble finding it:

We also sprayed it with a protective clear coat. For the table top, we sanded it all the way down and then did two coats of Minwax Classic Gray.

If you want to see how we paint furniture, check out our How to Paint Furniture post. Ready for the afters?

This set was done as a custom order so it’s not for sale. You can check out available furniture on our For Sale page:

• 

  Custom Built Barn Doors

Please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

If you like what you see, please like FunCycled’s Facebook page to keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We also offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and furniture. We can deliver for customers in upstate NY and also help you ship throughout the US. Send us a note with what you would like using our contact page. Or buy something that we’ve already designed from our online shop.

Hi Friends,

How’s your week going? I hope all is well and you’re staying warm in the northeast with this chilly weather. Our brand new furnace broke down this weekend and no furnace company was available that we called for help. So, John called the manufacturer, went to the wholesaler to buy a part, watched YouTube to learn how to fix it, and in the end saved us a couple hundred dollars I’m sure! The best part? We were warm that same day! He’s one handy guy to have around.

We also started the kids bathroom remodel. We’re only in the gutting stage right now, but I thought I’d share it anyway.

Before:

Now:

There was no way to make a tub fit into the space without it sitting in the window so we expanded the bathroom out a couple of feet. We also found beautiful hard wood floors beneath the plywood and linoleum. Yay!

For this week transformation, I wanted to show you how a customer changed the whole look of her dining room by repurposing the furniture she already had and buying new dinging room chairs.

Here’s the set before:

Katherine knew that she wanted it painted a glossy black for a much more modern look! She wanted a lacquer finish, but I don’t like working with lacquer because of how toxic it is. We went with a black enamel and a gloss clear coat to get a very similar finish without as many chemicals.

Here are the pieces painted before they were delivered:

Finishing the pieces made me really excited to see how they’d look in the space. Notice that Kathleen didn’t change much out other than the chairs and the centerpiece and it completely transformed the room!

This set was a custom order, but you can check out even more new pieces on our For Sale page.

• 

  Light Gray Dresser

Please sign up for our weekly newsletter by adding your email in the little box below my picture. 

Happy FunCycling Friends,
Sarah ;)

If you like what you see, please like FunCycled’s Facebook page to keep up to date on the newest finds, vote on colors and give your input on our creativity. We also offer interior design, kitchen cabinet painting, and custom built tables, barn doors, and furniture. We can deliver for customers in upstate NY and also help you ship throughout the US. Send us a note with what you would like using our contact page. Or buy something that we’ve already designed from our online shop.