The Chalk Paint Series, Dining Chairs

These cool geometric chairs have been in my family FOREVER! And when I say forever, I mean it. They're at least 50 years old.

BEFORE

 My amazing grandpa had these chairs at his family practice (he was a doctor) and after he retired they went up to our family cabin in Idaho for extra seating!

My handsome Grandpa! He was a doctor on WWII

The cabin was a place to play and be with family, so they were definitely hammered over the years and needed some touching up, and luckily I was able to snatch them up when they were no longer needed!

So I do not have any 'during' pictures, I'm sorry!! We were able to redo them so fast! First, I unscrewed the seats from the frames, then we just painted them with Annie Sloan graphite paint! It took 2-3 coats, and was a little bit of a pain getting every edge of all those cut outs but it was totally worth it. I also am glad we didn't lighten it up the gray at all, but kept it that deep graphite color.

After the paint dried we waxed them and buffed them with the clear wax and some old t shirts!

Now on to the seat cushions! I originally wanted these two chairs to go out on our deck, but after they turned out so cute, I wanted them inside for everyday use! Anyways, I went shopping for outdoor fabric at Joann's and fell in love with this print! (All their outdoor fabrics were also 50% off so I got 1 yard for 10 bucks, score!)

I also knew I wanted a much fatter cushion, so I just bought a foam block and cut the edges to fit the frame of the seat.

Once I stripped off the old leather cover, I glued the foam down to the wooden board using super glue. I then cut the fabric around the seat cushion so there was around a 4 inch border on the edges (I had a fat cushion). I then placed the foam side down on the fabric cut out. It looked similar to this one

http://southernhospitalityblog.com/recovering-chair-seats-101/

http://southernhospitalityblog.com/recovering-chair-seats-101/

The website above is actually the website I read to redo these, thank you Pinterest!

Then my mom and I started stapling the fabric around the edges. We first started in the middle of the back side, making our way to the corners, and carefully folding the fabric so it looked good from the front. I was also very sure to pull tightly so it didn't pucker anywhere or get too loose.

Like this one!

Once it was all stapled, we trimmed the excess fabric off so it wouldn't show from the bottom, and then just screwed the chairs back into their frames!

Here is the final product!!!

AFTER

Here it is on our living room wall!! I call that section of the wall the "Grandpa Wall"--the chair being from my Grandpa Crandall, and the dutch tiles being from my Grandpa VanYperen! I love the way it turned out and how it fits right into our living/family room! The other chair is our desk chair for now.

The Grandpa Wall

Add caption

The Chalk Paint Series, Dresser

With the invention of Pinterest, my eyes have glazed over at all the amazing DIY creations and ideas that flourish there. After getting pregnant I immediately searched those pins for ideas for the perfect nursery and house, but on a "future" med school budget, I knew I needed to make it as affordable as possible. I started dreaming of repainting old furniture and even convinced my husband to move to Colorado so I could do large projects at my parents house. I mean, lets get real, I needed to nest and I couldn't at that point because we still had no idea where we were going to medical school.

I have the most amazing mom, who got super excited with me about my MANY ideas of how I could create my dream nursery. In the short time that we lived with them this summer, we accomplished many amazing projects, and I am so grateful for all my mom's hard work in making it happen! It would not have been even remotely possible without her.

So, while I browsed Pinterest for ideas, those cute dressers that turned into changing tables stuck out to me. I also knew that my old childhood dresser would be perfect for what I needed, so I started imagining all the different ways to paint it and update it. After reading multiple DIY blog posts, I had a general idea of how to do it.... including sanding, priming, and then painting. 

I've had this dresser since 1st grade and it's held up so well!! (I took off hardware before I took this picture so I could shop around for new ones)

This is where the magic of chalk paint comes in, and let me tell you, chalk paint is where its at. What is chalk paint? At first I had no idea either, but my mom and her best friend Jolie had recently discovered it and wanted to try it out.

Chalk paint allows you to just paint straight over a piece of furniture without priming OR sanding. You don't even have to watch your paint strokes, because they all disappear into one beautiful seamless coat. Most pieces of furniture only need 2 coats, and it will even adhere to metal and plastic.  It also drys very fast. Aka super time saver and helps save us beginners from a DIY disaster. Seriously, this stuff is the shiz. It is more expensive than normal paint, but it makes things so much easier, takes no time, and the paint itself goes a long way. In a span of 3 days, we redid this dresser, two dining chairs, a mirror, a end table, and a lamp. 

We used the Annie Sloan chalk paint, by mixing old white and graphite to get a nice medium gray color for the dresser. 

I got this pic from the Internet since I forgot to take my own

Soo off to painting we went! Once we did two coats on the dresser, we decided to distress it a little bit to give it a little more flare. To do so, all we did was sand the edges, and wherever else we thought it would look good. I love it!

Once we got it to look the way we wanted, all we needed to do was apply the wax coat! Waxing is also pretty easy, you just brush it on, and then buffer it in with a white cloth. We used old t shirts and Brigham's strong arms buffing to make it look so good. We ended up doing two coats of wax on the top so its extra durable, I mean it is for a changing table. After the wax is on, your done! 

For the metal hardware, I dry painted the elephants and the pulls with off white and a hint of graphite, and then just put a quick wax coat over them. 

BEFORE

From World Market

From Lowe's

During

AFTER

They feel super smooth but still have the distressed look I wanted. I love the bright contrast against the gray of the Dresser!

Here is the final product! I am soo happy about it! Not only was it fairly easy to redo, it looks soo good and was exactly what I was going for! Call me super sentimental, but I also love the fact that its the exact same dresser I used growing up, and now Baby B will have the same one! It only looks cooler :)

Here it is in the nursery

I am want to publicly say THANK YOU to my mom, Jolie, Janet, Nikki and Brigham for helping make it all happen so fast!! They were so kind to help me when I kept adding pieces of furniture to repaint. I am in love with each and every one, and they look so good in our new apartment!

 Dining chair tutorial, mirror and end table to come later.