Hearty Meals, Warm Hearts: Our DIY Thrifted Dining Table

197

Mid-Century Modern
HDB (BTO)
~1,000 sqft
3 br
Couple Living

Hello, welcome to our dining area! This is one of our favourite spaces, as it reminds us of al fresco dining. We also love doing our work here (with the blinds rolled down these days, as the heat can get unbearable even though our house does not get any direct sunlight).
We have always wanted a wooden dining table that could last us for a long time. After searching high and low at many furniture stores in Singapore and Malaysia, we got a $100 thrifted dining table on Carousell instead, for environment sustainability purpose (we try our best). This table also meets most of our requirements (wide at 90cm, but the only downside is that it is not extendable). Having a thrifted dining table also means we won't get heart pain if the surface is scratched. This is made of solid acacia wood, hence it is very hardy. We have considered American walnut wood, but they are precious forest resource and it can get scratched easily.
The DIY journey began! Check out our time lapse reel of the whole process via our @themaomaohome instagram account. Dom had to - first sand the dirty stains using a thrifted sanding machine, - followed by staining the table with walnut wood stain, - and last, added several coats of varnish to protect and enhance the colour. Would have preferred a matt varnish but oh well, Dom wasn't able to get it in time. This whole process took us about a month (as we had not moved in yet, and needed to wait for the stain and varnish to dry in between).
Voilà, it is finished!
Initially, we toyed with the idea of having a built-in cabinet. But we decided to forgo it and got loose furniture instead, so as to make the living room and dining area more spacious. We styled the dining area with plants, and enjoy admiring them while having our meals. They are also great conversation starters with our guests!
Opted for loose furniture, and prefer having drawers for easy access and retrieval of items.
Kitchen is the heart of our home, and we enjoy making hearty meals for ourselves and guests. This was triple cheese ravioli (store bought) with tomato cheesy sauce, made by Dom. It was delicious!
We also enjoy transforming our dining area and living room to celebrate festive occasions. The floral arrangement and styling seen here were done by me (Choo). This was our first Christmas at home, and it was special to us.
More Christmas feasting with our guests. If we need to host more than 8 pax, we would add another foldable table to the dining area to expand it further.
This was our decor for the recent Chinese New Year. We had so much fun styling the space.
Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for our next post. Cheers, Dom & Choo