Been a busy bee cleaning and staining the rest of the dining room chairs, you can see where I started here, so no new projects yet again this week.  I’m hoping (fingers crossed) that all the chairs will get knocked out this week and I’ll be able to take on the dining room table by this weekend.  It is going to need the most lovin’, but we won’t be able to live without it  for too long since it just so happens to be where we eat most meals.  Which means when I start it there will be no time for dilly dallying.

At the moment I’m having a hard time focusing on the dining room, because  this past weekend I was F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. able to order the fabric to sew the slipcovers for the sofa cushions (more info on the sofa slipcovers here).  This stinking fabric has been on back order for over a month, which resulted in the living room makeover coming to a complete halt.   Long story short.  Searched everywhere (online & locally), collected samples, overjoyed at the discovery of a near perfect match, went to order it and discovered it was on back order, disappointed, began waiting game.  Bummer.  I should note it was my own unwillingness to pay almost double for the same fabric from other retailers that caused the extended delay.  See I found it in 3 separate locations actually, two different online vendors and one here locally.  The two online vendors offered it at the same base price, but Fabric.com (one of my favorite fabric sites) offers free shipping on orders over $35 and almost always has discount coupons too.  The other vendor had no coupons (that I could find) and wanted to charge like $65+ for shipping.  CRAZY.  The local shop which was supposed to sell fabrics at wholesale prices wanted $5 more a yard than the online vendors and since I was buying 17 yards of fabric that was no small chunk of change.  So I waited and waited (only stalking the site occasionally to see if the back order date had changed) until this past Saturday when I was  finally able to order the fabric using a 25% off coupon and free shipping.  Over $100 in savings!  So now I will wait not-so-patiently for it to arrive and try to distract myself with coffee table makeovers….

Realistic Chic really transformed her table with a can of spray paint.  Aah, the magic of spray paint.

And, I love this two-tone makeover from Rachel Bishop Designs.  Beautiful table.

Lucy Designs took this table from blah to beautiful.  She shares a little tutorial on how she did as well.

Okay, this one is more of a side table, but it is still a great transformation.  Check out Sweet Pickens to see the before photo.

Pepper Design shares a tutorial on how she transformed her coffee table into an ottoman.  Love it.

Our dining room table and chairs are a mish mash of an antique table found at an auction and some antique chairs passed down to me from my mom.  Neither the table or chairs have received any love in a looong time, so this makeover is very overdue.  I’m starting with the chairs because I can pull them out of rotation one at a time without really interfering in day to day life.

Current condition…

Still completely sound, but looking a little war torn.  They’ve survived 80+ years in the family with only a little cleaning here and there.  Of course, my mom used to threaten our lives when we were little if anything ever happened to them, so let’s just say we treated them with care.

My plan was to clean them up and then refinish with some new stain and poly.  I love all the little battle scars these guys have received over the years and didn’t have any intention of  re-creating the chairs into anything “new”.  The first attempt at cleaning, involved a mild solution of olive oil and vinegar, but after some hard scrubbing it really only scratched the surface of the layers of dirt and grime accumulated over the years.  Stage two involved smelly mineral spirits and chemical gloves.  The mineral spirits are much harsher on both the wood and myself, but definitely required to clean these babies.

After the scrubbing and drying were complete,  it was time for stain.  For this project I went with Polyshades in Antique Walnut from Minwax.  Polyshades are stain and polyurethane in one.  Super easy to apply, but requires about 6 hours in-between coats.  Looong dry time.  What worked for me was to apply a coat later in the evening,  let it dry overnight and through the entire next day.  Then apply a second coat the next evening.  Rushing stain and/or poly is never a good idea.  I’ve learned that lesson the hard way.

Chair #1 after two coats:

Much better, huh.  I love the new finish as it has really breathed some new life into these old guys.  Well, guy anyway.  One chair down and three more to go.  Then it’s onto the table.  Fun, fun!