New Future Hobby

A few weeks ago my cousin Kara called up, asking if I wanted to help her redo an old table with chairs. They were classy in the 70s or 80s or who knows when, but they needed a touch up. I don't think Kara or her hubby Kasey believed me when I told them I was thrilled to help, because as geeky as it seems, I've wanted to learn how to redo furniture for a long time!

First Kara and I headed to Home Depot to buy some supplies: sandpaper (both medium and the heavy-duty--trust me when I say if you ever redo furniture, you will need the heavy duty), paintbrushes, turquoise paint, and plaster of Paris. (Funny story about the plaster of Paris--the worker there thought we were psychos for needing it to mix into paint for furniture, but he said "Hey, they used it in Paris and Rome, and their stuff lasted a long time.")

We started on the project once we reached the G home. We sanded down the inside squares and brushed off the dust with a broom (while wearing masks.) Kara and Kasey then took the fabric off the chairs.

You can't really see it here, but the wood had a purplish tint to it.

Kara then mixed a cup of plaster of paris with about 1/8 C water and turquoise paint to match the fabric she bought beforehand.

We then slabbed on the paint, ready to redo these classy chairs and table. The paint dried more quickly than normal since it contained plaster of paris, so it was tricky to smooth out the paint in nice streaks, but it was doable.

We then laid out the cushions on the fabric to measure and cut, leaving extra fabric to fold over to staple. Kara and Kasey stapled the fabric to the backs of chairs, and it was a little tricky keeping it tight enough while pulling and tucking it in, but they ended up looking so good!

The seats were screwed back on and a brown ribbon was glued on as a lining to cover the staples and screws.

Once a finishing gloss paint was on top, it was done!

I don't know why someone painted over the original wood--you can't really see it here, but the natural wood was a pretty, light peach-ish color.

We thought the project turned out to be well-done!! It was an all-day project, but it was only a day. It still stands in the their kitchen as I believe it receives a lot of compliments. We decided to celebrate that night by watching football and eating sushi, which was my first time, and it wasn't bad at all! I've decided that once I have my own home I would love to buy old dressers, benches, tables, etc, and touch them up a bit. ;)