Kitchen Table Makeover

Since we were moving into a bigger space, we lacked a kitchen table (our kitchen table was now residing in it's more formal home - the dining room). I had to find a kitchen table, suitable to my budding intrest in mid-century design on a budget. Where is a girl to look?

I just moved to the Charleston, SC area and was excited to finally be in a place that had a craigslist!! However I was soon disappointed to find out that people here had a skewed sense of resale furniture. Finding anything under $500 proved to be difficult - let alone anything that broke the traditional, mahogany, Southern antique mold!!

Enter the estate sale business. I found a company that specializes in advertising, setting up, and carrying out estate sales. They have a sale almost every weekend an each week they put out a newsletter with pictures of the upcoming sale.

These are a few of the pictures I saw that first week...


Obvioulsy, I had to have that kitchen table.

I stood in line in the South Carolina rain, with my toddler in tow, 15 minutes before they opened the door (I was advised to do so by the operator due to my interest in a particular item). Within minutes it was mine, along with the black and white hat and stack of comic books (future project brewing). I was too late for the revolver cufflinks that I was dying to purchase for my brother in law. Such is the madness of the hunt.

When I picked up the table and chairs, I commented that I had plans to paint the bronzed metal black and possibly stain the chair backs, and no question - reupholster the vinyl chair cushions . He was baffled that I wouldn't want to leave it in it's original antique form - but the scuffed white vinyl had to go and bronze just isn't my thing. Although the walnut wood was really nice.

So, one of my first projects in my new house. Here are the after pictures...


I used black spray paint on the metal chair legs after lightly sanding. I used Patricia fabric from Ikea covered by a layer of clear vinyl from Walmart. The idea of vinyl with my child made me giddy. It was my first experiment with reupholstering and I'm very grateful you cannot see the bottom of the chairs! :)


It was my second time staining - I used an ebony stain on the wood and I love the way it goes on, but I had a hard time with the little pools and bubbles that formed. I had to just let it go...


The fabric wasn't my first choice, but I needed a functional table pronto and it worked. Someday I'll get someone to buy me this fabric, featured on a blog introduced to me by her. How's that for shout outs?!!!!