Our Shabby Chic Dining Table Makeover journey begins here on the country roads in Tennessee on a beautiful fall day. We were looking for a great set to start with but doing a FurnitureMakeover on something that has good form but not quite there was also fine.
So, here we are driving around in the country, can you picture it? Well in my mind I see us in a convertible and the wind in our hair but no, not that picture. This one we are in a minivan and there are yard sales everywhere! We stop and stop and had about the best time. It was a treasure hunt to be sure! We are looking for a Shabby Chic or Farmhouse dining room set or one with good bones that we can make into something beautiful
A Treasure Found
We finally picked up a pretty table and some chairs at another one. The finish was messed up on the dining table so it would be great for a painting project and the fabric… yuck! So, when we could fit no more in the van, uh I mean when we were tired and ready to go back home… we headed back to our “home sweet home” to check out our finds
Shabby Chic Dining Table Makeover
Gathering Our Supplies
We just so happened to have some Annie Sloan paint on hand. Mr. Cottage had picked up some Citra Solv at the local Whole Foods which had our wheels a turning.
One of our friends copied some great pictures for us that we had found on The Graphics Fairy blog. They have to be a reverse copy (backward) because we were doing words, and must be done on a special copier that uses a powdered toner or it will not transfer the image.
Then, off we ran to our local Home Improvement store for a canvas painters drop cloth (love these!), picked up some new foam for the cushion at Hobby Lobby, and we were ready to begin.
Tearing It Apart
We unscrewed the screws that held the seat to the chair easily enough and started the long process of taking off 8 layers (yep 8!) of dirty nasty fabric, staples, nails and yes even huge screws (screws?) that were holding the (did we say old nasty?) fabric to the chairs. Once finished with that we wiped down the chairs, got rid of any food and dirt and let the chairs dry.
Painting With Chalk Paint
Once they were nice and dry we went to get our chalk paint. We poured out the Annie Sloan’s paint and added water. For those of you that may have never tried Annie Sloan chalk paint, it goes far! Anyway, we painted the chairs and just loved the way they looked! We did a second coat (man chalk paint dries FAST!) We then began on the cushions while the paint dried.
The Cushion
We made the old piece of fabric from the seat cover work as a pattern for our chair covers and the seat base (piece of wood that is the seat found under all 8 layers plus the very dirty foam cushion) as our pattern for the new foam cushion. We cut the same size and then for the fun part.
Transferring The Image
We took the photocopies of our French graphics from our dear Graphic’s Fairy made with the copy machine with the powdered toner.
We measured the center of our cushion and pinned the top, bottom, right and left of the copy face down. Then put the Citrasolv on a cotton ball and began in small areas to soak the back side of the photo copy where we could see the printing. You then grab a spoon and rubbed the printed places gently but firmly. You can see the print get paler in the places as the picture transfers to your fabric. Continue until your entire graphic is on your fabric. 🙂 Awesome isn’t it?
Fastening Our New Cover
Then when finished we sat the foam cushion on the top of our wooden base, placed and centered our drop cloth covers on top of the foam and flipped them face down. With a staple gun we began to staple the right and left sides pulling firmly on each side as we went making even pressure so it would lay nicely (this is where it is really GREAT to be a twin!) At the corners we gently trimmed them and eased them to lay nicely as we stapled. We then simply replaced the screws at the corners that held the cushion on and it is finished. We liked it so much we did the table from the other sale.
