DIY Project: How We Gave an Antique Table and Chairs a Modern Facelift!

With a new house comes new rooms to decorate. From the moment we began designing our home renovation plans, I started picturing what would go in it. Colour schemes, furniture layout and pulling spaces together with colour, texture and function.  I knew I wanted to stand at the sink and see as much of my house as possible, and I knew that I wanted two separate eating spaces - a more formal dining area and  a breakfast nook.

So what did we have available to us to make this nook? It started with a table and chairs passed on to my husband and I that were originally found in his grandparents kitchen circa 1963. Sixty years later, these are not quite back in style in their previous form. We saw the potential in these curvy ladder backed chairs and sturdy round topped table. (Sorry, no before picture. #Fail)

We came up with a plan of (furniture) attack! We sanded the four chairs and table down by hand (we should have used the dremel multi-max tool that my husband hadn't unboxed yet; it would have saved us a day of work) and wiped them clean with water. Then, using a furniture paint sprayer, we primed everything white, then painted 2 coats grey, then applied 4 quick coats of satin finish varnish to make the paint finish invincible. Cost of Paint/ Varnish: $100 approximately, with plenty leftover for other projects.

We struggled with the colour choice- we talked red, we talked black, but came to semi-gloss grey because it is a lighter and brighter neutral that complemented the browns, reds and blacks that were already throughout the space.

The process wasn't as hard as we thought it would be. We forgot to take a before picture of the original table, but it was a similar colour to the chairs, with a removable white top that we left untouched. Once the chairs were painted, we needed to recover the seats (which were unpainted wicker) so that they would be comfy and stylish!

Finishing the chairs with foam and fabric was one of my favourite parts of this project; this meant going to Fabric Land. My goodness, the fabrics we saw there were so beautiful. We were after stripes that could pull the existing colours in the room together. Something that would look good in the Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall. We didn't want to spend too much money because we like to change our minds to freshen up the look. We had a hard time, not because we didn't like anything, but because we liked too much and had slightly different visions. This stripe was the perfect compromise and colour scheme to transform the chairs, more than the paint already had.  Cost of Fabric: $27

We needed to make the chairs comfortable using foam. We learned at Fabric Land that foam for seat cushioning can be quite pricey. So instead, we killed 2 birds with 1 stone (or 6 chairs, with some foam). Our 2 Ikea Chairs, one of which is pictured above, needed a facelift! This lovely grey used to be a dirty beige colour from years of use. We bought 2 new grey cushions for the chair, and used the foam from the inside of the old ones to create the cushions for our kitchen chair facelift! We cut the fabric into 4 large pieces, so as to wrap a present. A little cutting, staple gunning and adjusting later, we had these cushions ready to screw back on the our freshly painted chair bases.

How cute are those chairs? I love that we can just undo the staples and swap out the fabric if for some reason we're feeling like lime green and navy polka dot fabric. Or turquoise and brown paisley fabric....the possibilities are endless!

A few pumpkins, a red antique lantern, some placemats and our nook is complete!  It's wonderful to know that a piece of family history sits in our home, that we stuck to our budget and that we sit at this table together every day.

This is part of the reason that I love being a DIYer, both in my business and at home. I feel a lot of pride in the things I accomplish, and I see the results of my (and our) hard work every day. Have you ever done a DIY furniture facelift with family heirlooms? I'd love to hear from you!

To learn more about Schmooz Life, check out my blog post introducing this new part of our company. Want to know to get some Schmoozworthy people? Check out Fitness Entrepreneur Christie's story!