I am now posting on All For This Penny. Please visit me there!
When my husband and I got married we inherited a lot of hand-me-down furniture – a major life saver for poor college students (now a poor college student and his can’t-find-a-job-in-her-field wife). Most of the furniture was fine with little to no alterations except for our kitchen chairs. I have strongly (very strongly) disliked our kitchen chairs from day 1 but I hate spending money – especially since we don’t really have any. In August I finally had enough of our ripped vinyl chairs from who-knows-when and my dear, wonderful husband let me get “new” ones (I blogged about that earlier, here). Well, we FINALLY finished 2 of the chairs (our apartment is tiny and will only fit 2 chairs at a time… but the price is right so I don’t complain toooooo much but luckily there is an end in sight and we get to move next summer). In fact, I’m still just waiting for the finish to dry (otherwise I’d actually be kissing my lovely chairs).
Aren’t they beautiful? I looooooove them. Sure, they aren’t perfect but they are perfect for us!
Some things I learned from this project:
- not every technique works for me (apparently I’m not very good at distressing with wood stain or maybe it had something to do with the porousness of the wood)
- don’t skip the primer
- spray paint isn’t always the best option (we did that first and it looked AWFUL so we broke down and bought real paint… but I’m sure spray paint works wonders for other projects, just not this one)
- don’t be afraid of sand paper and distressing (I wish I had distressed a few more areas but I was slightly paranoid of distressing it too much)
- polyurethane has a yellowish tint to it and may not be the best finish for cream or light-colored projects
Overall, I am very pleased with how they turned out and it was a great first wood refinishing project. Plus, it was a lot of fun to have my husband help out.
November 3, 2009 at 12:54 pm
They look awesome. Hooray for new things!
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November 4, 2009 at 9:01 am
I think they’re perfect!
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November 3, 2010 at 10:14 am
I do think that before thinking about buying any new piece of furniture for a room, everyone should think about transforming what they already have in the house. That way, they can save a lot of money and still have something “new” and unique to enjoy, that looks exactly as desired. These chairs do look good. They were pretty well painted.
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