Crafty Girls Projects: unusual table and chairs

Have you been wondering about our crafty girls projects? Well wonder no further! This installment is my favoriet: our kitchen table and chairs. 

First, we found an old table (I think it must have been used in a school) at the Rebuilding Center for $5. We removed the legs and any staples and pokey bits and sanded the crap out of the laminate. 

Then we painted the legs red and the table top with chalkboard paint.

(Final pictures of the table at the end)

That part of the process too the longest. Because we made a couple of fumbles. 

We were poor planners and did our first coat of paint on a windy day (warning: don't do that!). And little yard bits blew into the paint, which we then had to wipe off, sand down again, and paint over. Our project would have been decidedly cheaper had we planned better and not had to buy more paint. 

Then came the chairs. Fumble number 2 is that I (yet again) forgot to take pictures of the chairs before we painted and reupholstered them. Fail. 

BUT, I can just tell you. 

We wanted 4 differenet chairs. So we drove to many thrift stores and finally found 4 chairs that we liked and would compliment each other. We ended up getting two chairs with metal and two with wood. Then we painted all the chairs a flat black. 

Then we found 3 different discounted fabrics that complimented each other, but had their own distinctive looks. Why only 3? One of the chairs had a black pleather seat that we liked and was in good shape. So we left that as is. Then we stuffed with batting and staple-gunned those babies together. 

To keep some symmetry, we went with two fabrics with bold, graphic prints and one with a darker, more subdued print. Like so:

The black pleather:

The darker print:

Here's a closeup:

Bold print with red: 

Closeup:

Bold print with yellow (my fave chair):

Closeup:

Finished product:

Isn't that yellow chair adorable?

Closeup of the legs:

The chalkboard surface:

Because we are!

And how it looks on a daily basis (ish). We actually now have plants on there (but more on that project later!). 

That's the other roommate's (Todd) birthday cake.

Next time: our insane pantry or maybe how to turn unexpected items into planters!