Furniture and Furnishings - 1950's60's retro kitchen table

How or what is the best way to re-finish the table part of a retro kitchen table. The legs are metal and I will paint them but I need to know if I can paint the top. I think it is like a flormica finish and need to know if and how to paint it. Any other ideas would be great. I don't want to do a crackle look on this as it will be used to eat off of. Help!

I am assuming you are talking about tubular chrome plated legs. It will be real tough to get any paint to adhere to a polished chrome surface, but if you have your heart set on trying, you will first need to rough up the polished finished. I would suggest you try 220 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper. If you have a driveway you can work in, you may want to take the table outside where you can drizzle water on the legs with wet rag or sponge as you sand. This will help the sandpaper cut better. When you have dulled the surface of the legs, you may use any high quality metal primer, then top coat the legs with a good oil base gloss enamel.

As far as the formica table top, I don't believe that a high use surface is well suited to paint. Even with the best preparation, I think you will find that the paint will scratch off very easily. Had you considered installing a new laminate surface over the original Formica? Perhaps you could find a nice 50's design laminate which would go well with your decor.

Thank you so much for the input. I had not even thought about a new top for the table. The information on how to re-paint the legs is great and now I feel that I can handle this project. This is the first time I have used this site and it has worked out wonderfully! Thank you again!

Why are you wanting to paint the legs? Are they in fact chrome? If they are and look dingy with light surface rust, they may be improved significantly with the use of automobile rubbing compound. This is a creamy material with a very fine abrasive in it which is rubbed with a cloth on the surface. It removes light rust and other stains as well as polishes the surface. Good luck.

Turtle Wax Polishing Compound and Scratch Remover (one product with a long name) will work well for what Thiggy suggested...

This may or may not mean anything to you, but these tables are showing up these days in antique shows. I believe the value would be significantly lowered by painting. To protect the value and also use the table, polishing the legs and using a table cloth would be your best solution.

Just my two cents :)

Elizabeth