Project: "New" Furniture

A few weeks ago, my friend Shawna mentioned that we should completely make over my kitchen table and chairs. While this may sound as though she was insulting my furniture, it was pretty grandma-ish and did not at all match my house. Also, I may have mentioned that I wanted new furniture. So her suggestion was not unfounded.

Before I knew it, Shawna, Laura, and I were at Hobby Lobby, picking out fabric for the chairs. This is what I picked:

Then it was off to Wally World for black spray paint because that fabric would have just clashed with my brown table and chairs.
The next week, Shawna came over, armed with a sander, a staple gun, and lots of patience. Project: "New" Furniture was underway.
The first step was to sand down the chairs and table.

We did not know what we were in for. The sanding is the most time-consuming and least fun part. But we wanted to get this project/party started, so while watching Monday night football, we sanded and sanded and sanded...and finished one chair.
On Thursday we got an earlier start and were able to sand two more chairs and re-cover all four cushions. The staple gun took some getting used to because every time we stapled it sounded like we were being shot at. I don't even like popping balloons or opening a can of biscuits, so I stuck my earphones in and listened to Usher while I stapled. Surprisingly enough, it worked well, and I was eventually able to staple without Usher's assistance. In no time at all, we had four "new" chair cushions.

Ooh la la, right?

We then decided to devote our entire Saturday to finishing my furniture. So we met around noon and got right to work. Within a couple hours we had finished sanding the chairs. We were anxious to begin painting, so we decided to save the table for later and headed outside to paint my chairs...and grass in the process. After a couple coats, we began sanding the table. The table didn't take nearly as long to sand as the chairs did because it doesn't have so many nooks and crannies.
So before long, we went back outside to begin painting the table. It didn't seem to be taking the paint at first, so we were a tad worried. But we just kept painting and hoped for the best.
By this time we were ready for a break, so we went to Orange Leaf and cooled off with fruit-topped frozen yogurt. We needed to beat the rain, though, so we didn't linger. When we got back to my house, we were pleasantly surprised to see how well the paint had covered both the table and chairs. We lugged everything back inside, set it up, and stepped back to admire our hard work.
I'm pretty sure I squealed in excitement. I really do love it. It matches my living room and kitchen perfectly, and Shawna and I are going to use the leftover fabric to make a valance for the kitchen window. My dining area now looks more modern and more "me." I really couldn't be happier with how it turned out.
And now, what you've all been waiting for...

In my excitement over getting "new" furniture, I somehow forgot to take "before" pictures of the table and chairs together, but I did snap a picture of one of the chairs pre-makeover.

Before

 

 

And here is the finished product:

After

And now you too can admire the result of our labor:

Ta-da!

(Don't mind the empty vase. I just put it on the table to add a splash of color and will eventually get around to filling it.)

Besides the sanding, this was a fun, easy project. I can't say the sanding part was hard or not enjoyable, but it was time consuming, and Shawna and I were just ready to see the end result. I'd do it again, if I had to, but luckily, I won't have to. Now that my table and chairs are black, I can just change out the fabric on the cushions when I want a change, which is the easy part. Plus, I'd get to use a staple gun. Once you get past the gunshot noise, it's really an adrenaline rush.