anyone else’s home filled with hand-me-down everything? our dining table, coffee table, kitchen table, living room couch, kids’ bed frames, bedroom furniture, and so many other pieces are hand me downs from friends and family. as i’m sure you can imagine, it was all a bit of a hodge podge at first. absolutely nothing matched!

when my parents offered us their old dining table, we’d just moved into our new house. we had our first dining room, but no table and no expendable funds. free new {old} table? yes please. it didn’t match, it wasn’t really my style, and honestly it wasn’t even comfortable. but it was f-r-e-e. and i had a vision. that vision stayed in my head for a good year as i tackled other projects and solidified my plans for the table.

really no time is a good time to paint a whole table and six chairs. but it absolutely beats buying a new one if you are on a budget like us. painting furniture is not hard. it is actually way more forgiving than you would think. it just takes some time. so logically, i dove in full force just after Christmas, in the middle of winter, when there was no option to do any painting outside. sometimes you just gotta go for it.

if you’re hesitant to paint furniture for the first time, i get it. it’s a LITTLE overwhelming. there are a lot of what ifs and you are probably worried you will mess something up. i have painted my fair share of old furniture {tables, chairs, night stands, dressers, beds, etc.} and i still feel that way sometimes. the first step is buying the right materials. this picture shows my favorite combination of paint for furniture.

zinsser 1-2-3 primer {usually in white but you can get it tinted if you are painting something darker}
valspar signature paint + primer, water based satin finish
minwax polycrylic water based protective finish
2-3 angled brushes {not pictured but helpful, a skinny roller brush. my sister turned me on to this as a great furniture painting tool. it has a different finish from a brush but in the end, you won’t really notice. }
sand paper, palm sander, or pumice stone for distressing. i prefer to use a palm sander because it is faster, but the others work just as well.

the paints above come in different sizes. you can buy according to your budget or the size of the piece you are painting. to give you an idea, for my dining table {oval table and six chairs}, i needed a gallon and a half of the valspar. i buy 1-2-3 zinsser by the gallon because i like to have it on hand. for the minwax, a LITTLE bit goes a long way. so a quart is fine for most any project, and you will probably have leftovers.

my process for painting is actually simple.

here are the steps i follow…

{1} wipe down. i use water and a soft rag to wipe off any dirt or dust. then i give the piece about an hour to dry.

{2} prime. i use primer on the whole piece. i’ve learned that brush strokes don’t really matter when it comes to primer. you just have to cover the piece as evenly as possible.

{3} paint. this is the scary part for most people. i’ll admit, i am also fearful of brush strokes and paint drips. but here’s the thing, it always turns out fine. i get drips. and i can see my brush strokes. and every time i am SURE my mistakes are going to be so noticeable. but they never are. in the end, somehow, everything always comes together. believe me. i’ve had tears thinking i’ve ruined something. but every piece i’ve painted has turned out fine by the end. you really just have to keep at it. keep going. if you see brush strokes, keep going. drips? go over them with your brush again as much as you can. if they are already dry, take a piece of sandpaper to them and do a quick touch up in the area with your paint.

i am a heavy painter. meaning i like a lot of paint on my brush. i think this helps with brush strokes. don’t overwork an area, going over it again and again. when the paint starts to dry, you will see things smooth together. most projects take at least two coats of paint.

{4} distress. this step is optional depending on what type of look you like. i have to say, when i get finished painting something and everything is smooth and pretty, sometimes i wonder if i should distress the piece. but around here, if i don’t distress something on purpose, my kids will probably do it on accident. someone will hit a chair leg with the vacuum. or run a car with missing wheels across the top of a table. i actually have faith in this paint combination to withstand most any wear and tear. but since i also like the distressed look, i usually distress at least a little bit.

for this table, i used sandpaper around the edges and spindles. on other projects, i’ve used a palm sander on all surfaces. again, it depends on what you like.

{5} sealing the piece. this is the last step and very necessary. i am always tempted to skip this step and just be done. but this is what will make your painted furniture stand the test of time. a little bit of the minwax polycrylic goes a long way. this step is FAST. which is always great when you are ready to finish a project. watch out for drips though, because this is a lot thinner than the paint and primer you’ll be used to working with at this point. use the minwax finish on the whole piece {what i do} or just on the tops if you think that’s where most of your wear will be. it’s up to you but if you’ve gotten this far, i say seal the whole thing to be safe. work in a ventilated area because this step is stinky!

dining room table and chairs

here’s how the process went for my dining table and chairs. i started the project by flipping each chair over and unscrewing the seat pad. i saved all the screws in a baggie for when i refinished the cushions. after wiping everything down with a warm wet cloth, it was time to prime the table and all six chairs.

the table was easy. the chairs were quick. the whole thing was so so fast. one or more of these statements may or may not be true. i’ll give you six hints.

again, diy is not always the fastest method of getting something to look new. however, it is often the cheapest method and a great way to keep old furniture in the family. i also like to customize things to the color i want. in my experience with tables, the chairs always take the most time. i am not going to lie, in the middle of priming six chairs and a table, sometimes i wish i had the money to go out and buy what i want. but when the project is done, i am always proud i took the time to diy.

after a few days of priming, it was time to choose the perfect color. it is so easy to pick a color in my mind when i am dreaming up a project. but when it’s time to actually choose? i am the queen of second guessing. after much consideration and many solicited {but opposing} opinions, i went with my original vision, cream. i decided against chalk paint, really because i don’t understand it enough yet and need to do more research on its durability. i like that i’ve found a formula that works and lasts.

choosing the right color cream was infinitely harder than i anticipated. there was a whole fanned out selection of cream swatches at lowes. ultimately, i went with my gut and decided on cream in my coffee. each chair as well as the table took three coats of paint, which was two more than i had hoped. and so it goes with diy.

when the final smooth, perfect coat was on and dry, i grabbed my pumice stone and sand paper and went to work to scratch it up. it pained me a bit to do this. the cream was so milky and smooth. but i really like the distressed look, and it makes me a saner mom about drawing, writing, and playing on the table. any wear and tear over the years is sure to disappear among the marks i purposely make.

you can use any number of methods to distress furniture. on this piece i used a white pumice stone because my sand paper was turning the cream a weird yellow color, and i had a white pumice stone handy. i also only wanted to do the edges. since doing this table, i’ve learned it is fastest to use a palm sander for this step. rest assured, this distressing step still makes me nervous every time. it isn’t until after i am done distressing the whole piece that i feel ok about it. until then, i feel like i am ruining all the hard work i just did. so if you feel like this too, you are in good company. just keep at it friend. the finished product will be a stunner.

after sanding, i wiped everything down with a dry cloth and applied the polyurethane for a smooth, scratch resistant finish. this protective coat is key if you want the finished product to be able to stand up to real life.

speaking of real life, you might be wondering how i found the time to complete this project with toddlers underfoot. it is not as hard as you might think. when i do a project, i try to give them LITTLE jobs. coloring with markers, sanding, or stacking wood scraps. painting an unseen portion of a piece {as seen here}. using my paintbrushes with water on their playhouse outside. getting out their pretend tools to work with me. letting them paint nearby with watercolors on cardboard or a big box. get creative. they will love it! for the table, they painted underneath while i painted the top and the chairs. they are used to my projects by now and LITTLE jobs for them go a long way for me.

confession. i’ve never recovered a chair before. but i knew the old, maroon covers on my hand-me-down chairs had to go. i figured it couldn’t be too hard to buy some fabric, borrow my neighbors staple gun, and figure this out.

i knew what i wanted. one of my favorite patterns. damask. black and cream damask to be exact. i thought black and cream would look great with the bluish-aquaish walls in our dining room left by the home owners before. i tried a new fabric shop and found exactly what I wanted on SALE. it was meant to be.

i bought an extra two chairs worth of fabric {so a total of 8 yards because i factored a yard per chair}. that way if anyone ever spills, i can just recover. {guess who was the first person to spill on a new chair cover? me! it was chocolate.}

my neighbor has all the tools. i have none. or if i do have a tool, i probably can’t find it. enter kim who has everything i ever need to borrow. we set up shop on my basement floor. i’d already turned the chairs upside down and unscrewed the cushions before painting. the next step was to turn each cushion upside down and trace on the batting i bought at the fabric store {see picture above}. in hindsight, i wish i’d gotten more of a foam to increase the comfort level. after tracing x 6, i cut out the batting in the shape of the cushion.

next i laid out my fabric, again upside down, laid a cut piece of batting on the fabric, and laid the cushion on top of the batting.

fabric. batting. cushion. all upside down.

the fabric pattern i chose needed to be straight so i had to arrange my batting and cushion accordingly. if you choose something solid, this step is easier. i trimmed the fabric around the cushion, giving myself about a 5 inch margin for each cushion. then i put on my sunglasses {because i couldn’t find my actual protective eyewear}, and went to town with the staple gun. kim supervised. i pulled the fabric over each side of the original cushion {with the batting in between} and stapled as i went. it did not look pretty on the underside, but when i flipped it over, it was all nice and smooth.

can you even believe that is the same chair? that is the best part of a DIY project. the before and after!

{before}

{during}

{after}

how can you make old furniture look new? primer. paint. polyurethane. fabric. batting. painting furniture doesn’t take a lot of skill, and neither does recovering a chair pad. they just take time. often the same amount of time it takes to shop for, order, and wait for a brand new piece of furniture. for me, the results are well worth the time because of the money saved. also because furniture with a story is fun!

if you’re contemplating painting a piece in your old house i say go for it. the best thing you can do for yourself is just get started. feel free to email me with any questions along the way!

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