Before and After Black Kitchen Table

My neighbor was chucking this solid wood beauty so I asked if I could have it instead sending it to the dump.  (Sorry that the pictures aren't very good.)

In spite of it's outdated countrified paint job, I knew it could be so great! 

We, my husband and I, had done our kitchen table white, but now after five years or so, it's top finish is sadly discolored and chipped; so I thought I'd check around and find out if others had had better luck with their table re-dos. So I found this tutorial:  white kitchen table tutorial
And I found this one: black distressed

I kind of combined the two and then added some ideas of my own.

Table: 
                  1. Gave it a good sanding with the electric sander.
                  2. Painted with a roller and a paint brush the Zinnser primer seen in the white kitchen tutorial (though I would next time have the place that I purchased it from taint it black or at least grey)
                  3. Just fyi: I also went to Sherwin Williams and found that they have a great product for tables and high-traffic areas, but since I'd already purchased the Zinnser I didn't use it this time.  I was going to use a wax like the tutorial suggested, but the man at Sherwin Williams said that it may impede painting the table in the future so I went back to using polycrylic.
                  4. Then I painted 3 coats of black latex paint, again with a cabinet roller and paint brush
                  5.  After the coats of black had dried, I took my electric sander again and chose places to distress the table that would be distressed under usual use (the arches on the table legs where a person would rest a foot, etc.)  Unfortunately, I found that the oil based Zinnser worked to bind to the wood so well that in most places I was unable to get all the way to the wood.  I couldn't leave the white primer showing on my "distressed black table", so I found some wood touch up pens that I received with my furniture and just colored the spots.  They turned out really nice and the crisis was averted.
                  6.  Next, I used polycrylic and painted it on 5 times.  I don't know if it's necessary to do it so many times, but I wanted to make sure the table was ready for any dents and dings it may get in the future (especially since it was going to a growing family with two young boys).
 

Chairs:

               1.  I didn't have the patience or the tools small enough to sand the chairs. So I used a sanding de-glosser which basically makes the paint a little gritty so that new paint can attach to it more easily.
               2.  Next, I purchased the spray Zinnser and put on 2 coats of primer.
               3.  Then I had to wait for a slightly warm, wind-free day to use my paint gun and used the black paint to spray the chairs (so I didn't have to get in between each rung). It only required one coat, then after they had dried, turning them upside down to paint another coat - getting all the parts of the chairs.  Getting between each rung with the spray gun was even difficult, so I did do some touch up with a brush.
               5. Again, I sanded - only this time I used 220 grit sandpaper and touched up places that would normally be slightly worn; and used the pen to tint it the right color.
               4. Lastly, I used a spray polycrylic to finish off the chairs.  I did two coats each.  Because they don't get bombarded by plates, utensils and all the other duties of a family kitchen table, I was able to use less protective coats.  Oddly though, even though the same product was used, the patina of the chairs turned out different from the table.  So, if you were to do this, you may want to either brush the polycrylic on both or paint it on both.  

Luckily, they still turned out nicely.