Well....the whole reason that I was on Craig's list was to look for chairs. We bought our kitchen chairs at IKEA about 7 years ago expecting them to be "dining room" chairs.....aka chairs that are to be "looked at" but never used.
Much to the chagrin of my MIL....we converted our dining room into our homeschool classroom and the DR chairs became our kitchen chairs.
IKEA chairs are awesome, but these were never meant to withstand 3 meals/day, science experiements, lego battles, and hold cute little bear-girls.....they were cheap, people, and I even used a coupon!!!
After both my hubby and dad trying to piece them back together....one day I again pulled the back off and had really had enough.....so I took to Craig's list.
There I saw advertised: Table and 4 chairs $30!!!! WooHoo!!!
Now this was one of my first experiences purchasing off Craig's List and I had no idea that it can be rather cut-throat. Thankfully, this family was ALSO a Christian homeschooling family (which I didn't know until we picked up the set) and didn't sell our table out from under us!
I don't have pictures of the chairs before.....but imagine this:
....with a WHOLE lot more scrolling on the back and they were that ugly 80's wood.
I soon got a little tired of sanding/filling/sanding/filling and my nose was truly just FILLED with wood-filler dust!
It was at that point that I got a little inspiration (some may just call it being lazy!).
I remember my Grandma having old black chairs that looked so worn that the scrolling was all faded and rubbed away....I decided to go for that look....
Instead of worrying about the scrolls being completely filled in, I left some texture to it......
(Yes...you are catching a sneak peek of an upcoming Christmas craft idea in the corner....close your eyes!)
I loved it!!! It's hard to see in the photo, but the back is actually smooth....you can't really feel the scrolling, you can just lightly see it.
I did the chairs just like the table except that I didn't buy anymore KILZ primer....it was just TOO expensive to use on 4 chairs.
I bought a can of el-cheapo black spraypaint primer......one can covered about 1 1/2 chairs.
I then sprayed the chair in Rustoleum Canyon Black:
(Oops...yes I done stole that photo off of Yahoo images....please don't turn me in!)
It took 1 can per chair at a cost of about $3.79 per chair......but think of what it would have been like to brush paint onto all of those spindles!!! Grueling........they would still be sitting in my garage!!
I was VERY nervous to "antique" it....but after spraying, I decided to rough-up all of the edges with sandpaper and it looks gorgeous!!!
I think it matches exactly what I picture my Grandma's chairs to be!
This was one of the bigger projects that I've ever undertaken and I was really nervous that I wouldn't see it through.....but spraypaint is just so quick and easy to use that the project really only took a couple of days!
Total Cost: Table and 4 chairs---$30
1 can Kilz---$4.99 (used for the table)
2ish cans primer---$6.00 (I had one at home already)
2 cans Krylon ivory gloss---$6.50 (it was on sale!)---used for the table
4 cans of Canyon Black----$16
polyeurethene----free, I already had some
Grand Total: $63.49 for a brand new to me table and chairs!
Happy Spraying!
2 comments:
I'm not a crafty person, so please forgive me if I don't follow very well, but what was the ivory gloss used for? I could not find where you used it in your chair re-do. Thanks!
The ivory gloss was what I used to finish the table.....I explain how to do the table in another post. That was the TOTAL cost of the whole project....table and chairs!
Thanks for pointing that out....I will put a link there to the table. :)
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