My dinning room table is one of my favorite projects! I received this table for free from a family I use to nanny.  My mom and I worked on it together before I moved into my house. I knew I would be busy working on my new place so I did a lot of furniture projects the month before I closed on my house.

Before –

Table Prep –

Well this was a fun task…I ended up hand sanding the table with my mom and got about half way through the sanding and my dad brought us ZIP STRIP!! Wow did that go fast once I figured that stuff out. Zip Strip is perfect for any type of project that involves staining. It’s important to get down to the raw wood if you are going to re-stain anything. On the other hand, if you’re looking to paint a piece of furniture then roughing up the piece with sand paper is enough to get the paint to stick properly.

Zip Strip is pretty potent so make sure you complete the task outside with some heavy duty gloves.

Table After  –

I ended up picking up a dark stain from Home Depot to match the buffet I was using in the dinning room. I painted the base of the table in White Dove by Benjamin Moore (OC-17). I used White Dove throughout all the trim in my house so figured the table and chairs would match perfectly.

Dinning Room Chairs Before –

I picked up 3 solid oak dinning room chairs off Craigslist for a total of $30. I thought they would match enough to go with the table!

Chair Prep –

First I started by taking the cushions off. I used a pliers and flat head screw driver to pop out the nails. I didn’t sand the chairs down like I did the top of the table but I did rough them up with medium sand paper – just enough so the primer would stick. I primed the chairs (make sure you let it dry several hours between the prime and the paint coats). I purchased a spray painter from Home Depot and boy did it get it’s use! I sprayed everything I could get a hold of. It’s always easiest to spray things outside on drop cloths.

Chair After –

I picked out the fabric I wanted at Joanne Fabrics but waited until they had a sale. I found the chevron fabric for 50% off and I had a coupon that I found online. I ended up getting enough to cover 6 chairs for only $50. I purchased new liner for the seats and stapled it all the way around the cushion. I then cut the fabric enough to allow for it to cover the entire seat and I hand stapled the fabric to the seat. An electric hand stapler would have been much quicker had I owned one. Ha!

Here’s the finished product…