The week before Thanksgiving I couldn't get it out of my mind that NOW was the time to refinish my
much in dire need-ugly-scratched-dirty-boring table and chairs...
much to my husbands roll of the eyes. The more I thought about it the more it had to get done!! It's a disease really! The "I-have-to-do-it-now" disease! You see about 6 months ago (in the warm summer months; the ideal time to do something this large) I got the genius idea to start and I sanded one chair and it has sat and sat.... sad and lonely in my garage all of this time.
So before we left for Arizona for Thanksgiving I contacted a girl from church who refinishes furniture and she was able to sand down all of our chairs while we were gone (totally worth the $100 for 5 chairs; do you see all that detail?!?!?) and when we got back I dedicated 2 weeks to refinishing our table, painting and re-upholstering our chairs. Here are some of the before/after pictures!
I'll admit it was a HUGE pain... but thankfully the first few weeks of December were unseasonably warm and I was able to get it done relatively fast. I'm hoping I don't have to refinish it again for a loooooong time! I guess technically I don't "have" to re-do, re-finish anything... it's just part of who I am I guess. So, here is to kicking the new year off with a fresh start!
Our chairs have been thrown up on, peed on, had spilled milk, and food of all kinds on them... they were screaming out for a replacement so I did just that! Good riddance is all I have to say!
That quarter sized white spot is paint that got accidently removed from leaving a cotton ball of acetone on the table (apparently a big no no!) well over 2 years ago (when I originally was going to refinish the table) and I couldn't be more happy to have that gone now! The style worked for us 5 years ago... not so much now... you can see why it was time for a face-lift!
Just a little glimpse of the BIG mess. I used a spray gun for the chairs and it worked like a dream (totally worth the money... it's my new favorite tool!) and I sprayed the base coat on the table and legs and then I hand brushed the rest of the table. It was quite the sight!
A photo at night. I need to take some photos during the day all set up nice with my centerpiece, but below are some that I took while it was inside drying before we started using it. Now... what to do about that darn light over the table... I see another project coming on!
I chose two types of chair upholstery. I love the yellow/mustard color (fabric from Home Fabrics for $10 total for 4 chairs). I paired it with a faux ostrich vinyl type fabric for the end chairs ($20 total). It's hard to tell from the photos but the chairs are actually a light grey and they compliment the creamy table quite well! I really love it!
You can see the grey a little better in this photo above.
I distressed the table top because I didn't want to be the mom that stresses when anything hits or bumps my "perfect" table. It works great for a family with 4 small kids! Overall I couldn't be more happy. My kitchen looks bigger and it fits the style of our home more!
