Thonet Bentwood Chairs with Chevron Seats

Happy New Year! I hope you are all staying warm. Here in St. Louis we have had below zero temps and quite the snow fall! The kids winter break has been extended and we have had to make an unplanned trip to Indiana because my mother-in-law fell and broke her wrist. It was great to see her though, and even better to spent New Years day with her and my sister-in-law.

I've been trying to keep as busy as possible with 3 kids home. One project (or two) that I was able to get finished, are these cute little chairs that I found on the side of the road downtown a few weeks back.

My first thought was to paint them because I recently picked up some new colors of Milk Paint that I was excited to try. But the back of the chairs had such deep scratches in them, I decided that they needed to be stripped down and refinished first. I re-stained (only the backs) using Minwax Gel Stain in Brazilian Rosewood, and my vision changed. I didn't want to cover the beautiful wood finish any longer with paint. I cleaned up the rest of the chairs really well using ammonia and water and added a few coats of a high gloss clear acrylic. I recovered the seats in a yellow and white chevron fabric and here are the newest addition to the shop.

Thanks for stopping by!

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An old stool + Graphics Fairy = SMILES

Last weekend when I was at my brothers house finishing the dining room set, a neighbor was having an estate sale. I must have driven past it 3 times before I couldn't resist. There wasn't much but I picked up an old TV cabinet ( I'll be getting around to that soon) and this old wood stool on caster wheel (of course I forgot to take a before pic, but it's not a hard one to imagine). I got them both for 5 bucks! Apparently I was the only one that found this little stool appealing (I showed up at the end of the day).

I headed over to the Graphic's Fairy blog and went through her amazing graphics till I came across this one

then I went to the website BlockPosters.com that she mentions on one of her posts. It is free and it will resize your graphic to any size easily. The technique that I used is from that tutorial as well. 

I decided not to use the wheat part of the picture since I had limited space, but I love how it turned out!

After I was finished painting on the graphic, I painted parts in blue and sanded and sanded some more to remove most of the blue. I wanted to make sure that it still looked old. 

I have a confession, which I am really only admitting to because my mistake can save you A LOT of time!! I didn't wait till the black paint was 100% dry and when I distressed it, the wood became a black mess, Duh!! It looked aweful! So I sanded it down and started over :-( A days work, wasted. So lesson, wait till paint is completely dry before distressing! The second time, I waited overnight. So after distressing again 

I used Minwax wipe on Poly to protect it. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how it turned out! I would love to hear what you think!

Linking up at:

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FINALLY BACK TO WORK!!!! AN ANTIQUE PEDESTAL TABLE MAKEOVER

I know that it has been over a month since I have posted anything, but for those of you who follow me, you know that we were moving. Well I won't bore you with the details (at least not in this post) but it couldn't have gone (and this is putting it mildly) WORSE!! So from the time that we moved from our last house to the house we are in, I had to put all of my treasures in storage, UGH!!! I couldn't do any work.....and it drove me CRAZY!!

Well, we moved into our house a couple of weeks ago, and before I could start on any fun work, I painted our bedroom, and gave the kitchen cabinets a makeover (I'll post on that soon...along with the ups and downs of that project). Yesterday I felt alive again, doing what I love....redoing furniture!!

I found this amazing pedestal table a few months back for $30. We were still in the process of packing but I couldn't pass it up. It had a terrible paint job, white paint slapped on and maybe a little glaze....but not good.

I know it doesn't look bad, but up close it was rough

LOVE THE CLAW FEET!

I didn't manage to take any pictures of the process, but I'll explain what I did step by step and bore you with some after pics ;-)

The first thing I did was stripped the top of the table using Klean-strip Stripper. It works great! You brush it on, wait about 20 minutes or so and it sort of bubbles up. Then you scrape it off. It's kind of messy, but much easier than sanding off the old finish. It took me a couple of times using the stripper to get of the paint and the old finish, but once that was done I sanded it smooth with my circular sander.

I stained the top with 2 coats of Minwax Dark Walnut (which is my fav!) sanding in between coat with steel wool. I used Minwax wipe on Poly for the top coat. I did 2 coats also sanding with steel wool.

Then for the base of the table, I couldn't wait to try the DIY chalk paint that I read about on Sherry's blog from No Minimalist Here (post seen here). I used a sample pot of Behr Ultra Spartan Stone in flat, and like Sherry's instructions, used 2/3 paint and mixed in 1/3 Plaster of Paris. The consistency was thick so I just added a little water. Shook it up and was ready to paint! It went on kinda gritty, but went on very evenly and the were no brush marks ;-). Oh, before I painted, I gave the table a good cleaning and the paint I used has primer mixed in, so I think it will hold up well. I used 2 coats of paint sanding between coats and it sanded SO smooth! The Plaster of Paris did change the color a bit once I sanded it, but luckily I liked it either way. I read that for some people it lightened the color, but in my case it darkened the color a little.

I didn't distress much, but just as read in some of her comments that said the paint can come off chippy.....it can, so be careful when sanding.

I waxed the entire table with Minwax finishing paste wax, and love the sheen and the feel of it! I'm not really sure if you are supposed to wax over wipe on poly but I did anyway, and it turned out great. I know know for sure that you don't have to.

I haven't use ASCP, and I am sure that the DIY chalk paint doesn't compare, but I have to say....I LOVE how the DIY chalk paint turned out compared to plain paint. I seems much smoother and was so easy to work with. I would say that if you are going to finish pieces that are waxed or have a polyurethane finish you should continue to take the necessary prep steps to ensure a long lasting finish.

I still can't wait to try ASCP....but a BIG thanks to Sherry @ No Minimalist Here for coming up with a secondary chalk paint technique!!

So after WEEKS of not blogging or taking pictures I went a bit crazy with the after pictures. I hope you enjoy!

One of my favorite things on the table is the picture of my Grandmother when she was young. It's a beautiful picture, and I miss her

linking up with these awesome Friday parties:

Miss Mustard Seed

French Country Cottage 

At The Picket Fence

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Dining room update

So what started as a project (you can see the beginning here) I thought that I could finish by today (what was I thinking??) has turned into one of those projects that have proven to be one that I should have maybe have waited till the move was over, uhhhh! I have most of it finished already (3 days, not bad) but I'm soooo tired now! Here is how the progress is going....

a reminder of the before:

I put 2 coats of Minwax Dark Walnut on the top...

I can't believe this is what was under that old finish!

followed by 4 coats of wipe on poly....

2 coats of black suede paint on the skirt of the table and the base...

You can't even tell that a chunk of the leg was missing!!

While that dried, I tackled the hutch. I first removed the hardware and took off the doors. The picture is after only one coat of paint, although since I have put 2 coats on, just haven't taken a picture of that yet. I'll post when I have the doors and everything put back on.

This is a picture to show how lazy I am by not taping ;-)
It comes right off with a razor blade!

I still have to paint the chairs, but it's been so cold and with the baby it's been difficult to find that much time away to tackle them....so I decided to redo the seats in the meantime, see what I mean about a small project that just keeps growing??

The first seemed very boring and I have had this fabric for a couple of
months now just waiting to find something to use it on! What's even better is that
it is outdoor fabric that will hold up great with the 3 kids!!

I think that this fabric will be great with the chairs painted black!

I know it would have made more sense to keep the table apart and in the garage till we move next month, but how could I admire it then??

So my husband reluctantly helped me bring it in and put it back together :-)

I've been trying very hard to take a picture that makes it look as good as it does in person, but for some reason, I JUST CAN'T.....so you get a lot of them

I've added a coat of poly on the base and it looks much better.
I still have a couple more coats to do till it's complete

Oh, and I think that the deglosser has worked great! I was able to destress the edges and the sanding didn't take off all the paint! So, in my opinion....a success!!

My next post will be of the finished dining room, hopefully it will be soon!

Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

Would love to hear what you think!

linking up to:

Feathered Nest Friday

Furniture feature friday

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