Welcome to my happy place of DIY, homemade, homegrown, handmade, nourished & crafted, whole hearted living. Finding magic in the mundane & growing some roots in the process.
This post may contain affiliate links. If you click on a link and purchase an item, I will receive a small commission. For more info, please see my disclosure on my Connect page.
I know I promised to have a post up on my new favorite hike, but I have been working on refinishing a dining table and chairs for a client and in short, I just haven’t had my act together this week.
Sometimes life is like that.
When I work on tables that have leaves to expand the size, I seem to run across the same problem over and over. The table “seams”, if you will, don’t touch each other like they did when the table was new. The funny thing is, this is such a simple fix and you’re going to laugh when I show it to you.
HERE is a little video I made to explain.
Yep, simply pull the table and leaves apart and clean it.
Surprise!
Start first by wiping it down with a damp rag. Then if you still have stuck on food, grab a small scraper and gently scrape away the stuck on bits. Be very careful because you don’t want to scratch the finish. If you are worried, wrap the damp rag around the scraper and then scrape, this will give some cushion. Try to keep the scraper blade below the top of the table so you don’t knick or damage the top. Obviously when you are refinishing a top you don’t have to be so careful about how you scrape it.
Once you’ve got it all off, go over it with a damp rag once again, let dry, and push your pieces back together.
Your table should be good as new.
It seems funny writing a blog post about such a simple thing, but for some reason nobody remembers to do it. They just live for years with a gunky ill fitting table. If this is your table’s story, take 5 minutes tonight and solve the problem. Give it a good cleaning and if it’s real bad, try out this table leaf trick.
You’ll kick yourself that it took you so long!
Ok, be honest…
How long has it been since you’ve cleaned out the cracks on your table?