Painting by Numbers

My love affair with numbers on furniture is well-documented!

One of my earliest projects was a numbered--and lettered--desk and chair (click on images to be taken to the blog post):

Then there have been several sets of barstools:

A couple of tables (Roman numerals still count!):

…and even a chest of drawers.

So although I fell head over heels for this set of old wooden folding chairs at my favorite consignment shop last fall,

…I thought they could be improved a little—with numbers.

Yes, this is what I do with the nervous energy that remains after the holidays!

These chairs have been featured at It’s So Very Cheri and {Primp}!

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Too Much Time on My Hands
Domestically Speaking’s Power of Paint
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
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
Primitive & Proper	I Heart Naptime
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Mod Vintage Life	My Repurposed Life
	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground

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Two-Tone Table

I actually wanted to call this the “Two-Friends-Two-Tone-Table,” but that was kind of a mouthful!

Once upon a time, one of my dear friends got it into her head that she wanted me to refinish a dining set for her.  The fact that she lives 750 miles away from me was no deterrent to her…nor was the fact that she has never physically seen any of the pieces I have refinished.  She was determined!

So the search began—long distance and on-line—to find a suitable table.  We were on a tight budget, since her husband is one of the nation’s many unemployed.

Enter Friend 2.  Upon hearing of our search, she offered to let me have a vintage dining set that had belonged to her husband’s mother.  Yes, let me have.  As in—for free.  She knew it was for another friend of mine, and that they had no money.  So out of the goodness of her heart, she donated to our “cause.”

Friend 1 and Friend 2 don’t know each other, and probably will never meet.  But bless them both, for having faith in ME to put this little transaction together!

The table was completely disassembled when I first saw it, but I fell for the chunky legs…hard.

The table top has pull-out leaves on each end and a beautiful apron (it’s the piece on the right, leaning up against the dresser that later became yellow).

Plus a pretty stretcher (it’s not quite so blurry in real life).

And six chairs, one of which is an arm chair.

Friend 1 only ever saw the pictures, but she trusted me to bring this dining set into the current century!  I’m sure she had a few misgivings along the way, though!

There were a lot of loose joints and such, so I had to do some gluing (this Bessey clamp was a marvel to work with—I borrowed it from a friend, and almost didn’t give it back):

…as well as some creative repair work on the arm chair.  The dowel had broken off, so I used a 3/8” paddle bit to drill out the old dowel, and then I cut a new one to replace it and re-glued the arm back on the chair.

I enlisted some of my short help to sand chairs…

He looks thrilled, doesn’t he??

I sanded the table top completely down—you can see how dark the original finish was on the leaves! 

The rest of the table top was not in nearly that good of condition!

The grooves on the top of the table reminded me of a checkerboard, and inspired me to try a two-color staining job.  The only problem was that the grooves did not extend down the sides of the table top—but that was nothing a little work with a handsaw and some black paint couldn’t fix!

I painted the base of the table (and the chairs) black, and distressed them to highlight the turnings and carvings. 

The dark stain on the table is Minwax Antique Walnut, and the lighter stain is Pecan.

Here you can see it with both leaves extended.

I love how the checkerboard effect shows up even on the sides with the leaves closed.

I wasn’t brave enough to pick out fabric for the chairs for someone else, so with the help of another friend, we took lots of pictures of bolts of fabric and sent them (via iPhone) before she chose this pretty black floral/paisley print.

The fabric on the seats wasn’t really dirty or in bad condition, so I didn’t remove it—I just added a new layer of batting and stapled the new fabric over all…plus a bit of my sleeve…  (whoops!)

And there you have it:  the Two Tone Table!  I really love the look of it.  It wouldn’t have been bad at all in my now-empty front room…

…but alas…my friend came and took it away (yes, from 750 miles away). 

I hope it’s happy in its new home!

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Thanks to It’s So Very Cheri, Stylish Once Again, My Repurposed Life, and Simple Home Life for featuring this project!

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Topsy Turvy Tuesdays
Domestically Speaking’s Power of Paint	Someday Crafts’ Whatever Goes Wednesday
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
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
Primitive & Proper	I Heart Naptime
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Mod Vintage Life	My Repurposed Life
Stylish Once Again	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground	Thrifty Décor Chick

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Wouldn’t you rather have something pretty?

There is a Savers store just around the corner from our local Deseret Industries (both are like a Goodwill store). I don’t check it quite as often as DI, but I try to stop in fairly regularly to look for furniture. They don’t have good stuff as often as DI does, but what furniture they do get is usually a great price!

One day a few weeks ago, I walked in the front door to see this table staring back at me:

Oh, I swear the heavens opened and angels sang! Look at those gorgeous legs!

Sure the top was a little worn…but that just meant it had been well loved!

And there were two chairs to boot!

Their legs weren’t half-bad either!

The only problem was a sticker marring the top of the table:

SOLD. Hold until 11 a.m.

I was crestfallen. Sadly I walked away, hoping that the person who purchased these lovely pieces would truly appreciate them.

I continued my rounds, stopping in at DI, then on to Wal-Mart. But I couldn’t get the little table out of my head. When I finished my errands at 10:50 a.m., I decided to stop back by Savers—just in case.

I walked in the door, and the little table looked at me hopefully (or so I imagined). It was still there! I walked away a few feet to keep an eye on it.

A store employee walked by the table and glanced at that tag. He called out, “What’s the story with this table? It’s almost 11:00! If that lady doesn’t come back soon…”

I saw my opening, and leaped in… “I’ll BUY IT!” I said with ill-concealed glee.

Then the wait began. 10:57. 10:59. 11:01! RING ME UP!

The little table…and the chairs…came home with ME!

And we were very happy!

Lest I sound like a true ogre, an effort was made to locate the original purchaser. As far as the employees could tell, she had left the store.

I found a remnant of a beautiful green bird print that was perfect for recovering the seats, and it set the tone for the rest of the makeover…green it would be! I took the fabric in with me to Home Depot and purchased a sample of Behr Ultra in a shade close to the birds. However, when I got it home I decided it was going to be a little too in-your-face green, so I lightened it with some white paint.

On the left you can see the unglazed chair; on the right is with glaze. It mellowed the color just enough, and brought out the interesting details.

And here’s a newly recovered chair seat. I love this fabric!

I sanded down the table top and re-stained it in my favorite Minwax Antique Walnut.

There’s a 14-inch butterfly leaf tucked away inside.

One of the things I love about this table is how narrow it is: only 31 inches. It would be perfect in small quarters.

I still love these beautiful double legs!

If I could, do you know what I would use this table for? A craft room. What a great place to spread out your projects! (I coated the top with 3 layers of Varathane just in case!) A seamstress could extend the table and cut out an entire dress. A scrapbooker could assemble a whole vacation’s worth of memories!

After all…wouldn’t you rather have something pretty to work on? Who needs that old folding table, anyway??

…And when the work was over

…maybe it could just be a nice place to enjoy a glass of lemonade with a friend.

This project has been featured at Beyond the Picket Fence and the DIY Home Sweet Home Project.

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Linking up to these great parties and Saved by Suzy.

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Oh Stanley...you're just so pretty!

This project has been featured on Better After.
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I'm sure a guy named Stanley wouldn't appreciate that remark. However, I just finished a BIG dining room set made by Stanley Furniture...and well, you know the rest. It's just so pretty!

I didn't always feel that way about Stanley. Here's what I started with:



Six chairs with those gold velvet cushions. I don't know about you, but I am so over gold velvet. (What year were those popular, anyway??) And yes, two of the chairs had broken caning, so I got some more experience at replacing cane! (The story in pictures of that adventure can be seen here.)


The table definitely had some really pretty details, but you had to look past the brassy gold trim, orange-y table top, the yellowish-white paint, and the black specks! Why was the whole thing covered in black specks? And no, it wasn't an accident...it was really/truly part of the finish.




Then there was a buffet and china hutch. Again, the same funky speckled paint job. The hutch doors had some sort of a faux-wire treatment in front of the glass. I've seen chicken wire in hutches that looks pretty cool...somehow it just didn't work with this set. Then the back of the china hutch was covered in a very brassy-gold mottled paper. Not my favorite look.

Here's the after...
(be prepared for a LOT of pictures!)

I do recognize that it seems a little funny...or snooty...or snotty maybe...to make fun of one shade of white only to choose to paint another shade of white. So be it. At least mine doesn't have funny specks, and it's not all yellow-y! I used Behr Ultra paint in Pillar White. The stain on the table top is Minwax Jacobean--FOUR coats of it! I used some stain to highlight details, as well as Minwax Dark Wax. I did not distress any of these pieces. I tried it on one chair, but I wasn't a fan of the speckled yellowish finish showing through!


The chairs were slipcovered ala Miss Mustard Seed (in fact, the whole makeover was inspired by her beautiful dining room set). Yes, they're made out of drop cloths. I love that stuff. I made miles of box pleats (well, it seemed like miles) to go around all six chairs! I used a narrow irridescent white ribbon on top of a cream-colored grograin ribbon for the ties. When the slipcovers were all done, they seemed a little blah to me...so I painted two random stripes on each seat. Some are centered, some are not! It gave a little pizzazz to the chairs.



Although the buffet top was originally painted, I chose to stain it to match the table instead. If someone chooses to use it by itself, I think it gives it a lot more appeal (that's what I tell myself anyway).


I covered the back of the hutch with wallpaper that has a subtle white and silvery-gold stripe. I already had it on hand--and when I held it up, it was perfect.

I used all the original hardware. I painted them with Rustoleum ORB spray paint, but they were a little blah, too. So I experimented with Rub-n-Buff for the first time, and I love it! It's glaze for metal! I rubbed a little on the edges of all the pulls, and it gave it a whole different dimension. I'm definitely a fan.

So what do you think of Stanley now?

This set is available for purchase. You can see it at Re-Creations ( 5508 South 1900 West, Roy, UT, or you can e-mail RedHenHome@gmail.com for inquiries.

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