French Country Dining Set

The workshop has occupied so much time and attention this summer that I have a LOT of furniture projects waiting for me! 

I’m at the point of wondering “what to tackle next?” 

I decided to go for the biggest bang—as far as reclaiming space is concerned! 

The table was dismantled, so it wasn’t taking up much room…but I had FIVE finished chairs stacked up in my bedroom, so I decided to finish the set so I could at least have my room back!

If you’ve been with me for long, you know I have a long and glorious history with pressed-back chairs. 

I love ’em. 

One of my first major projects was this gathering table:

…and I loved it so much I later refinished a similar table in black:

Then there was my grand idea of refinishing a dining set with different pressed-back chairs for myself:

…which I didn’t end up keeping, but another friend of mine decided to run with the idea.  She bought up grundles of pressed-back chairs, and I finished them for her.  When she had multiples, though, I received some of the chairs back…in payment!

And that, dear friends, is why I had five pressed-back chairs cluttering up my bedroom!  As luck would have it, I found a sixth chair at Deseret Industries recently, and I was given this table (don’t you love the legs??)…

…what if I put them together??

Ahh…a match made in heaven!

The table top was sanded down and re-stained in Minwax Dark Walnut, which for some reason didn’t want to get very dark.  I liked it anyway.

The six chairs—all different—are painted with a Behr Color match of Sherwin-Williams “Creamy.”  They are glazed with a watered-down burnt-umber craft paint.  That is NOT my preferred form of glaze anymore—but some of these chairs were started long ago, and everything needed to match!

I like these table legs better…

I had fun dressing up the table a little bit….

…someday I’ll have a table that looks good with this doily runner; it’s my goal in life!

Anyone up for an al fresco dinner?

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This project has been featured at Elizabeth & Co. and Domestically Speaking.

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Linking up here:

Domestically Speaking	Elizabeth & Co.
Primitive & Proper	The CSI Project
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Beyond the Picket Fence	Someday Crafts
Knick of Time	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	All Star Block Party
Cowgirl Up!	{aka} design Coastal Charm

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Gold-dipped Chair & Table

It has been a while since I posted a furniture project again, so I thought I’d give you a two-for-one project!

This cute little bamboo-style chair and table came out of my neighbor’s garage.  She has a little bit of a thrift store addiction herself, and I still remember the day I got to Savers just after she did…and she walked away with these!  I was very jealous.

Well, several months later they ended up coming to me anyways.  HER husband decided it was time to clean out the garage!  Mine was already so full that a few more pieces of furniture didn’t matter  ;-)
The first thing I had to do was replace the caning on the seat back.  For a more detailed description of how you can replace chair cane with kitchen utensils, look here.   
 
I painted the chair and table in a creamy white, but I thought they needed a little more pizzazz!
So I got out some gold acrylic paint to dress up the bottom of the legs for a “dipped” look.  I also added some gold to the finials on the table and the banding on the arms of the chair.  What did I learn from this project??  Don’t use acrylic paint on furniture!  It took about a million coats of paint to cover!

I found this fabric at JoAnn’s.  I’m not normally a “blue” person, but it was perfect with the white and the gold.  And it had a bird on it!  I’m a sucker for birds.

So there you have it.  A little gold-dipped “glam” for a corner somewhere…I think these would be so fun in a bedroom for a little reading corner!

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Linking up here:

Domestically Speaking	Elizabeth & Co.
Primitive & Proper	The CSI Project
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Beyond the Picket Fence	Someday Crafts
Knick of Time	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Simply Klassic Sundays	My rRepurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	It’s So Very Cheri
Cowgirl Up!	{aka} design Coastal Charm

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“Grain Sack” Office Chair

OK, here’s a bad-blogger moment.  I don’t have any before or even middle pictures of this chair—just the afters.

A friend of mine gave the chair to me, knowing that I was hoping to convince my husband to use it with the pretty new office desk (no such luck).  It has a nice wood frame, but it was chipped and worn.  Since it was already a dark, faux-wood-grain finish, I decided to spare myself some grief (and work) and keep it dark—it got a coat of black paint.

I found this nice embroidered linen-look fabric at Hobby Lobby, and it reminded me of a grain sack.  But when I first recovered the seat, I was seriously under-whelmed.  It seemed too bleahh next to the dark chair.

What to do…what to do…

I decided to “highlight” the grain-sack look by stenciling on a number.  It’s amazing how such a simple change made me like the chair a whole lot more.  The black number seemed to tie the seat cover in with the frame—and it’s just more fun to look at that way!

This table will be available at the Whitaker Flea Market on June 16! Hope to see you there!

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Linking up here:

Domestically Speaking	Elizabeth & Co.
Primitive & Proper	The CSI Project
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Beyond the Picket Fence	Someday Crafts
Knick of Time	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Simply Klassic Sundays	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	It’s So Very Cheri
Cowgirl Up!	{aka} design

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Replacing a cane seat -- my way!

There are a lot of great tutorials on how to replace a cane seat.

This is not one of them.

But it does show that you don't need special tools to do the job!

Just look through your kitchen drawers!

I haven't always been brave enough to try re-caning. When I found this bench, for example, I chose to cut a new wood seat and ignore the broken cane (and I think that was a great choice for that project).

However, I did replace a cane seat for this set of chairs, so I was ready to tackle another one!

This is what I came home with:

In my opinion, removing the old cane is the most difficult part. Some come out easy, some don't--this one was a "don't." A utility knife and a flat-head screw driver can be helpful in clearing the debris out of the channel, followed by a nice roll of sandpaper. You want to get it as clean as possible for the new cane and spline.

Then the instructions tell you to soak the cane and the spline--don't skimp on this! That's what makes it pliable enough to work with. Give it a good hour; you'll be happier that way.

Then you have to push the cane into the groove. Do you need any special wedges or rollers?

Nah.

What you need is something dull, narrow, and with no sharp edges! So dig out your plastic spatulas, dough scrapers, and cookie turners!

Be creative! When you need to go around those corners, you're going to need something short...so turn your spatulas over!

It looks goofy. But it works!

Once you have your cane tucked in nice and snug in the groove, you can just use a utility knife to cut off the excess cane just below the edge of the groove. Make sure you have a nice, sharp blade. A dull blade can pull on the spline, and "untuck" it. You can use something like a putty knife--or a nice metal dough scraper if you're still working out of your kitchen drawers--to provide a nice straight edge to cut against. Hold the putty knife in one hand with the edge just below the edge of the groove, and run the utility knife along the edge.

You should soak your spline at the same time as your cane (did I forget to mention that before? sorry). So now that the excess cane has been cut, you're ready to squirt a bead of glue (I use a good-quality wood glue) into the groove right on top of the cane. Insert your spline into the groove, running it all the way around without worrying about pounding it in the first time. It's easy enough to cut with a utility knife when you get to the end. Then, use a hammer to gently tap it into place.

Yes, they sell special tools for pounding in spline. I haven't used any of those, either!

It may not be a professional job--but I don't charge a professional's fee, either!

Here's how the chair looks after some paint, distressing, and glaze:


I snapped this picture just before this chair went out the door this afternoon. It was one of six pressed-back chairs that I refinished this week! (See here for those other chairs!)

(Edited to add: Rhonda at Yellow Brick Road posted how she re-caned her chairs here.)

Note: I order my chair cane and spline from Rockler. The supplies are not very expensive, but shipping is! But Rocker often gives a "free shipping" code, so I always do an Internet search for one, and save my orders until one is available if I can.

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