First Foray into DIY--Complete!

The table and chairs are done! (And have been done for awhile, but it took me much longer to remember to buy new batteries for the camera so that I could show off the finished product).

I am so pleased with how it's turned out, and slightly torn on what to do next--sand, paint, and get new hardware for our dressers, paint our bookshelves so that they aren't all different colors anymore, or reclaim the old seat cushions for our chairs by sewing a cover for them and turning them into a doggy bed (not that we have a dog yet, but that would bring us one step closer, right?). I've also considered doing a variation on this: Possible Next Project.

My First Foray into DIY

One of the changes we had to adjust to when we move here from Utah was the shift from a furnished to an unfurnished apartment. Our old apartment was generously (if not fashionably) arrayed with old furniture from our landlord, most of which looked like it had been purchase in the 1970s. When we moved in here the apartment was completely bare, so like most young couples we were faced with the prospect of furnishing our apartment on a shoestring. Rather than going for financing or buying cheap particle-board stuff from WalMart, we decided to go for some solid albeit well-worn used furniture with the somewhat ambitious plan of fixing it up ourselves. Well, three months later and I have finally finished the first part of our project--repainting our dining room chairs. Not exactly as quickly as I planned, but I ended up being a lot busier in the last three months than I expected, and repainting furniture turned out to be a lot more labor intensive as well. I still have a lot to tackle (two bookshelves, two large dressers, and the table) but I am super pleased with how everything turned out so I thought I'd share the results.

First I sanded the chair to rough up the surface and remove the original finish.

Then I painted the chair with two coats of a nice primer. 

After that came three coats of paint (the color we picked out is called Cracked Pepper), three coats of spray paint clear enamel (which smells awful but is necessary to avoid instant chips or scratches), and some new bright cushions.

Here is the before.

And after.