Still Working on the Dining Room

The chairs have been painted and are in use and the table has been refinished.

Originally we planned to stain the table a dark walnut, but I had a change of heart early in the project. It's an old (if you consider the 1980s old) country-style pine table - solid and heavy as...heck. It has a lot of character, some probably added at the factory before shipping and the rest added by us. It really needed to be refinished so I thought we'd update the entire room with a dark-stained table and white chairs.

Well, after stripping off most of the old finish and looking at the beautiful color of the pine, I just couldn't change the color. It's so rich and orangey-yellow and gorgeous. So I bought a spray can of matte polyurethane and left it as is - warts and all (actually, stains, marker and some of the old finish and all). We LOVE the way it turned out, very rustic, very much like raw wood. I had to change some of my ideas for the room (the color of the chairs and curtains, for example) but I'm flexible and actually had wanted to go with a colorful room all along - I just thought it might be too much. I just love it so much. We're still working on the curtains and the china cabinets.

The end chairs were sold to us by a friend at his rummage sale (for $3 a piece) and I sooo wish I had a before picture of them. They were blond wood with a faux green marble vinyl seat cover. Underneath the chairs they say "Room 209" and they most likely came from a mid-priced hotel chain - I can so see them in the corner by the round table with the lamp. I spray painted them and recovered the seats with one of my thrift store fabric finds.

Close up of the fabric, a very small blue hounds-tooth pattern (more blue than this photo would have you believe):

Comments

[giddygoat]

Super cute!

[Rachel@oneprettything.com]

The chairs look fantastic! I have a bunch of thrifted chairs that I'll be mixing with some unfinished IKEA chairs. Now I just have to decide on paint colors...

[Amy]

I love your bright chairs and beautiful table!

[Pretty Ditty]

Absolutely beautiful! I love the happy colors.