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Numbered Grain Sack Chairs

September 14, 2011 in Building and Repurposing, Furniture Makeovers, Kitchen

Today as promised! Fair warning… this is a long one with LOTS of pictures!

I’m finally finished with the chairs… happy girl! Here’s a price break down on what these bad boys cost me:

2 Chairs – $4 total
Grain sack – $3
Paint – already owned
Small brads – $2 (Clearance!)
Carpet tacks – already owned

Total cost to for TWO Chairs – $9!

Yeah, I think I can handle that. Here’s a rundown on how I made over the chairs:

Back in August I picked up these chairs and the Fulton sack at an auction. Read all about my AMAZING STEALS here. The chairs were part of a group lot of 5 chairs, a side table sort of thing and a tackle box. The grain sack was tucked away in the bottom of a box of linens I bought for $3.

Here’s a glimpse of one of the chairs before I started:

I started by removing the seats from the chairs and removing the top layer of of cushion.. an awful, plasticy, make you think about sweaty legs in summer covering! Wipe-clean is nice and easy…. but not on my covered chairs please!

I added a new layer of extra loft batting. I couldn’t use my nail gun for this step because the nails and staples I had were just a hair too long. Instead I opted to hammer in small carpet tacks by hand. Yup… carpet tacks! I had them on hand from a previous project… might as well use what you have!

I love that the seats have a stamp on the bottom that says they were made in St. Louis MO. You don’t exactly see that on most furniture these days…

There’s a quick rundown of the tools I used on the chairs. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my brad and finish nailers?! I held my breath as I cut the grain sack apart. No turning back now! The sack fit the seat perfectly though. Just had to trim a bit off the length.

Then I wiped down the chairs and gave them each two coats of Annie Sloans Old White Chalk Paint. LUV this stuff! The pic below is after my first coat. Would you believe I totally hadn’t realized they were two different heights until I took this picture?! The one seat is a good inch taller!

After letting the two coats dry I thought the chairs still needed something…. and decided to add NUMBERS to the backs!

I printed off a couple of numbers and used my exacto to cut them out and make stencils.

I lined them up and lightly taped them on while I traced them out…

Then I mixed a flat slate grey paint with vanilla white and painted the numbers on…

After letting the acrylic paint dry for a couple hours I gave both chairs a light sanding to make the chalk paint extra smooth and expose just a few touches of the green paint on the edges. It almost looks more blue peeking through the AS Old White. LUV! I made sure to sand the numbers well. I wanted them to look a bit worn and not freshly painted!

….slapped the seat cushions back on and…. are you ready for this?!

One more before…

….and the AFTER!

You can see in this photo where I distressed the edges just a bit. A coat of wax will keep the chairs from further distressing. Me love!

…and now for a ton of after pics… cuz you know I love them!

(I think this is my favorite shot of these chairs!)

I had to carry the chairs outside to get a decent picture. It was VERY overcast today and consequently very dark inside. Makes the pictures look dreadfully yellow and dreary. Yuck!

I still need to decorate this space. I am already thinking of ideas for the ledge but I’ll be sure to let you know what I come up with! For now, the items seem to change almost daily!

Next step for this space will be to build a corner banquette. I’m probably the most excited for that part. I’m going to trim it out to match the board and batten walls, but I’m not going to permanently attach it to the walls. Instead, it will be free-standing so the next home owner has the option to remove and just keep the board and batten if they’d like.

Happy Wednesday everyone…. and I just made my deadline of finishing this post before Survivor starts by FOUR MINUTES! Whew!

Check out my Link Parties tab for a list of all the awesome blogs where I’m linking this project!

…and HUGE THANKS to these sites for featuring the chairs!

Dining Room Chairs Finished!

September 13, 2011 in Building and Repurposing, Kitchen

It took me a couple extra days… but only because I was seriously LACKING in motivation this weekend. I took my horse to an event on Saturday and when I got home I just felt like sinking into the black hole that is my couch and vegging out for a bit.

Here’s a quick shot of Sly standing by the trailer waiting to go. Sorry his face is so dark! We were running late and I had to get ready quickly. Shocker… I’m late for everything.

Sunday I got up and went to see Sly in the morning. After Saturday he deserved a little pampering. When I got home I made some cupcakes. Boredom is BAD for my waistline!

After whipping up those bad boys I was starting to feel the effects of skipping my morning coffee. HEAD.ACHE. Yuck. After a short nap I found myself quickly falling back into sloth-ness. Yup… that’s a word. Look it up (or maybe not).

Around 7pm on Sunday night I started to have DIY’ers remorse for NOT doing ANYTHING all weekend. Buck up Dana and crank it out. So I grabbed a paintbrush and got to work on the pair of green dining chairs! …and I’m SO happy to say they are DONE! I finished them tonight, but unfortunately the night time lighting in my house is horrible.

Lesson learned during this project…. keep an eye on the puppers! Quinn came over to give kisses and I couldn’t help but notice she’d been checking out my can of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint!

Here’s a peek at the finished chairs… and I’ll take better pics tomorrow in the natural light! Promises!

I can’t wait to show them to you with the blue table. I think they look pretty smashing! Hope everyone’s week is off to a great start. Can’t wait to show you the finished pair in the newly refinished kitchen nook!

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