Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Before and After: Kid's Table and Chair

Everyone loves a good before and after! I know I do, don't you? Boy do I have a good one for you. But first, the story behind this little makeover. A few years ago, my sweet husband built this little table for our 2 toddlers. 
A fun little Spring planting project all set up and ready to be done!

The chairs were a nice spicy orange, the legs of the table creamy white... it worked and we loved it. It gave our little ones a place of their own to do projects and be creative and eat lunch and all of that good stuff!
Now, fast forward a few years later after that and our family grew... a. lot. We now have 5 beautiful children with the oldest at 6 and the youngest at 4 months old. They keep us busy to say the very least! We added 2 more chairs to that table but with the way the base was built for stability (it was a drop-leaf top) you couldn't really push chairs in on the sides so they were always hanging out. 
So lo and behold, I put my husband to work again to build a bigger top for the table so all of the chairs could be pushed in. Along with a new table top I knew I wanted to do something different to the chairs. I was reeeeaaallly getting tired of the spicy orange. I like to change things up every now and then and it was time! After going back and forth about what color(s) to paint them and really not being able to settle on anything, I decided to ask a fellow blogger. Amy has a sweet blog named Blissful Blooms (and a cute Etsy Shop to go along with it!) and ever since I found her blog, I have really admired her style, which happens to be a lot like mine! (although she gets to go junkin' way more often than I do...I need to change that!) I was a little nervous to email her, considering I didn't "know" her other than from reading her blog but decided to do it anyways...And I'm glad I did. It so happens Amy had painted some kiddie chairs herself, about a year ago.
http://blissfulblooms.blogspot.com/2011/08/happy-chairs.html

Can I just say I LOVE how her chairs turned out?! So now that I had a plan (and a good one!) I got to work:
 Here are the 4 chairs (the 2 red ones were a first attempt gone badly to stain them instead of paint. Only the original 2 chairs were the orange. We had never got around to doing anything to the 2 unfinished wood chairs.) sanded and cleaned up and ready to get their new paint job!
 Good bye spicy orange chairs....
 We made some good memories but I will not miss you!
Good bye stained red chairs...
Sorry your stain came out blotchy and just wasn't right. We still have the rest of the can of stain and will remember you if we ever use it on another project!
HELLO NEW CHAIRS AND TABLE! OH, HOW I LOVE YOU! My husband did a great job rebuilding the base of the table, reusing the table legs to accommodate a much bigger table top. 
 He sandwiched 2 sheets of plywood together, glued, clamped and later sanded the edges to make a nice thick beefy top. The legs and sides of the table got a nice new paint job using Painters Touch Heirloom White in Satin. 
And the chairs each got new paint, also using Painters Touch spray paint in Satin. The yellow is called Summer Squash and the purple, Lilac.
The green is Leafy Green and the red is called Colonial Red. 
And as we say goodbye to the little table made for these two sweet hearts
I know many memories will be made on our new pint size table and chairs.
Wishing Everyone a Happy Day!

1 comment:

  1. CHRISTINA! These turned out SO SO cute! I love the colors you chose! Isn't it so nice to have a handy husband around? He did a great job on the table! And I was flattered that you even emailed me- so sweet! Thank you for your kind words!
    Are you headed to SU convention? My friend is so i thought of you. Have a wonderful day!

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