Before & After



     This is my dining room table and chairs.  I love, love this table.  If my house was on fire, you would find me hoofing it on my back trying to get it out the door.  I bought it at an antique mall in Weatherford 8 years ago when I got married.  The chairs are old mismatched chairs that belonged to various great grandmas in my family.  I painted them all white and covered the seats in a pretty shabby chic fabric.  But 8 years and 2 kids later, it was time for a redo.

     Why yes that is a giant kool-aid stain!  I took a couple days off work this week and got started.  I wanted to do this project without spending much money so first I rummaged through my mother's insane fabric collection.  I found some beautiful Amy Butler upholstery fabrics my mom was hoarding and decided to use two different ones (also she didn't have enough of any to do all eight chairs the same so I'll mix them up).  I used the two fabrics on the far right on top and bottom. 

    Next it was time to decide on paint.  I thought about a nice gray or maybe a funky green but in the end I went with a great aqua color.  I didn't want to drive to one of the big towns to get paint (2 hours there and back) so I went to the local hardward store 10 miles away.  I'm all for shopping locally when I can but I wouldn't recommend someone get paint there.  I was just impatient and didn't want to wait.  The dust on the paint chips was an inch thick.  I spent maybe 30 seconds picking a color.  I'm not one of those people that spend hours agonizing over paint choices.  Go with your first choice, whatever you were drawn to first.  And remember it's just paint.  I really wanted a high gloss but they didn't have any so I had to settle for semi-gloss.  So two days and two coats of paint later I have new chairs.

     My mom and dad came over and helped me recover the seats.  Then I sprayed them with a couple coats of Scotchguard.  I'm not sure why I didn't do that 8 years ago.  I probably wouldn't have had so many stains on them.  I think they look great.  I needed a change from the shabby chic look and am really loving the gaudiness of these. 

     They are loud and fun, just like my kids, which must be why they like them so much, too!

     And one last after picture:

     Total time on project: about 3 days

     Total cost: about $12 for paint

     Not too bad for 8 chairs. 

*A little disclaimer--I take almost all of my pictures with my phone.  I do own a camera but I really suck at taking pictures with it and then having to connect it to my computer, blah, blah, blah.  I rarely do that.  Also I have absolutely zero interest in taking good pictures.  In theory I would like to own one of those giant ass cameras with lots of lenses and take amazing pictures of my kids, the landscape, wild animals, Saturn or whatever people take pictures of. But in reality even if someone gave me one, I wouldn't use it.  It doesn't interest me in the least.  So I apologize to all of you who look at my pictures and think I take really terrible pictures.  I know I do.  I don't care. 

Have a great weekend!