I end up redoing projects a lot. Our dining room table holds the record. I got the table from my mom after we moved into our second apartment. I wasn’t a big fan of the yellowed, knotty pine finish. We painted it red, without any sanding or finish coats. That lasted a while, but the paint began to peel off.

We refinished it in yellow and green, this time with sanding and finish coats. It lasted a lot better. But the tabletop started to chip, and the finish was never that smooth.

I didn’t want to paint the table again. I got the idea to simply put on a new table top. The table was narrow, so at the same time we fixed the tabletop we could also make it wider.

While at a home re-store, I found some leftover acrylic panels. We bought them for $2 a piece. Three across made the table top. After sanding down the top, we attached them with epoxy glue. It was a very simple solution, and I like my table more now.

It went from too narrow to too wide, but that’s okay. I also learned that more coats doesn’t mean a good paint job. The paint job still chipped and didn’t look great because we didn’t take the time to really research how to do refinish furniture well. I sanded down through a finish coat, paint and primer. It took a long time.