Ughh. I need help!

Remember the two free chairs I got back in August? Here's what they looked like:


They finally made it to the top of the queue, mostly because I am trying to get my garage cleaned out before the snow flies!

I made my two oldest children help me pull out 4,193 staples Saturday afternoon. That left me with this:


I wasn't feelin' the love for the medium oak stain, so I sanded the arms and legs down, and tried to darken them with Minwax Walnut stain.

I got this:


So not impressed. The grooves were really hard to sand out, which probably explains why the stain didn't take evenly...or well. It just looked muddy to me.

So I broke out the Heirloom White spray paint, and the burnt umber craft paint for a glaze. It wasn't great, but I was hoping it would look better with actual fabric on it.

After several hours spent re-upholstering today, this is what I have (keep in mind that there is no trim yet):



Guess what? I'm still not impressed.

What do I do now? I really don't see this in black, but maybe I should paint the legs brown? I've never been crazy about brown-painted wood, but it's gotta be better than what I've got now! Any other suggestions? Anyone? Anyone?