my very own dining room table!

I have been wanting a dining room table since we moved into this house 5 years ago (we never had a dining room before moving here) but it just has not been in the budget. Recently I have been looking on Craig's List hoping to find my dream table at a dream price. I did find the perfect table, but not for that dream price I was hoping for. I decided to make an (absurdly low) offer anyway and in the mean time kept checking other listings. I never even got a response from the "dream table" listing, but I did find this table.
I know, pretty sad looking, BUT it was only $15 and had potential- I mean, it was wood and had two leaves (I really wanted a table with leaves for when we have guests).

It needed a bit of TLC and creative repair, but i was up for it.

See, looking better already :)
Phil had suggested painting it Black or dark brown and since I was headed to Home Depot the next day to buy paint for Regan's room I figured I would pick up a quart for the table too... but after further thought I decided to shopping the shed first to see what paint we had that might work for the table. I was happy to find half a gallon of robin's egg blue in semi gloss just waiting to be used!
So, I used a combo of Kilz and Zinsser spray primers that I had on hand (Phil did have to pick up one more can of Kilz as the two partially used cans I had were not quite enough). Then I brushed on two coats of the blue (Behr semi-gloss). After this I did one coat of Behr clear varnish I had on hand, but it was a matte finish and I was not happy with the look and feel, so the next day I sanded it down, did one more coat of blue and then one coat of Minwax water based Polycrylic Protective Finish in semi gloss (I just happened to have an unopened quart of this in the shed) and I LOVE the way it turned out!

I used Behr's Linen (semi-gloss) on the legs. I am still not sure if I like the legs lighter, but I will live with it awhile before I decide to paint again :)

Here the table is with both leaves in- big enough to sit 10 people comfortably!
For just under $20 ($15 for table and $4.66 for spray primer) I have a nice BIG, sturdy dining room table!

A note on choosing paint:
So, I have read a few post recently of people praising Behr's new paint with primer for painting furniture, so this weekend I put it to the test. I painted Regan's dresser using the new paint with primer and this table with regular Behr semi-gloss. Hands down the regular semi-gloss went on smoother and easier and dried MUCH faster. It took just as many coats to cover with the paint with primer as with the regular paint and three days later the dresser is still tacky- the table is dry (and has been since about 4 hrs after painting the last coat).

I have been happy with the coverage of the paint with primer on the walls (and knowing my propensity towards bold colors that are hard to cover, will continue using it on our walls) but for future furniture painting I will stick to spray primer and regular old semi-gloss.