Everything Old is New Again

How many of you have furniture in your home that you are tired of looking at, but you don't really want to replace it just yet?  I'm sure that a lot of us have sat back and looked at furniture in our homes and imagined what it would look like with new fabric, or if a new coat of paint would spruce it up.  I faced this dilemma last summer.  The table and chairs in my breakfast nook were purchased in 2002.  The furniture is hand-painted with fruit accents.  It has a french country look to it.  At the time I loved the furniture.  Over the past few years, I was tired of the fruit but I didn't want to purchase new furniture for my breakfast nook.  So, one day while sitting in my kitchen I imagined what the table chairs would look like if I painted them.  I decided that I needed more color in my breakfast nook.  My walls are Latte (taupe) and the furniture has a brownish/dark taupe coloring to it.  It sort of blended into the walls.  Also, the seat covers were off-white.

To paint the chairs, I used a kit designed to refinish cabinets--Rustoleum Cabinet Restoration.  The kit can also be used on furniture.  Below is a picture of one of the dining chairs before the paint and the new seat cover:

This is what the chair looked like after a two and a half day process of prepping the furniture, painting two coats, applying a glaze, then applying a top coat.

Here is a before photo of what the breakfast nook looked like before the chairs were painted and the seat cushions recovered:

Now here is the after with all the chairs painted:

By painting just the chairs and changing the fabric on the seats, I added a nice pop of color to my breakfast nook.  I also changed out the artwork and accessories on the buffet and table.  I decided not to add any paint to the table.  Sometimes it's good to get away from the matchy-matchy look.  I think it adds more interest too a room.

With a little bit of time and effort, you can easily transform a space from boring and dull to wow!!