Rainbow Pastels Dining Suite

I don't know how but I seem to have missed doing a post on this dining suite as soon as I had completed it...oops!

I picked up this gorgeous pine farmhouse table along with some rattan bentwood chairs which were awful and didn't suit the table.  I got rid of those, knowing that I would find some better chairs without too much trouble.

The table was in great condition, it just needed that golden honey colour removed, and oh how I love to do that!

I started by stripping the tabletop with paint stripper.

I sanded the legs and apron.

Sorry about the shadows, but you can see the table looks better already all stripped back!

I primed and painted the legs and apron in my favourite off white, then lightly distressed before sealing with wax.

Here is the table with just primer on it.  The top is still in its natural state.

I lightly distressed the legs by hand, then waxed them.  For the tabletop I followed this procedure that I have used several times for achieving that perfect shade of french willow grey that is so popular amongst shabby chic and French country fans. 

I didn't take any before or during photos of the chairs, but they were just ordinary brown colonial style kitchen chairs, in good solid condition.  I sanded these back then primed and painted them each in a different pastel shade, something I had been wanting to do for a while...I got the chance to do some here for a client and I wanted to do it again, with a couple of extra colours thrown in.

I distressed each chair by hand (a huge job!) and then sealed them with two coats water based poly. They have an absolutely gorgeous smooth feel and look which is hard to capture in photos.

Here is the suite all done...

I am thrilled with how the dining suite has turned out, it just has such a happy feel to it.

This suite is for sale, please contact me if you are interested in viewing.

Client Commission: French Country Hall Table

Hello!  It is a hot one here today as forecast so I have been hiding in my workshop finishing off the table that I mentioned yesterday that I had been battling with.  Here is what the 'before' looked like:

A cute enough hall table but just a bit outdated colour-wise.  And that colour was what gave me all the grief...it was covered in thick wax which proved a bit challenging to remove but I got there in the end with a trolley load of 80 grit sandpaper.  

I think I lost 2kg in sweat working on it yesterday, not that I am complaining about that ;)

I primed it with Zinsser BIN which is the best product to use on a previously waxed or oil-contaminated timbers to ensure the paint adheres properly.

The top is being left natural, the timber (I am not sure what it is) is beautiful and has lots of character on the top, it would have been a shame to cover that with paint.

I had to paint the sides and back of the drawer which isn't something I would normally do, but due to the design of this table, they are visible (you can see what I mean in the finished photos further down this post).  

The owners of the table wanted me to trim it down a bit to fit in a specific space, so I had to get over my fear of using the circular saw in a hurry!  To ensure I cut a nice straight line I measured 15mm out from the front and back outside legs of the table, then used a sliding square to draw a line up the edges and along the table top.  

I then held my circular saw on the table top and lined up where the blade would cut with the line I just drew. (The little notch on the black part of the saw marked '0' is where the cut will be).  I held a piece of scrap timber against the right hand side of the black part (don't know the technical term for it!) and clamped it in place at one end.  I then measured the distance from the edge of the scrap timber to my line (35mm), and measured the same distance at the other end to make sure my timber ran parallel to my line, then clamped that end and fired up the saw.

I am pleased to say it worked a charm...what a lot of sawdust two little cuts make though!

After one coat of primer I gave it two coats of off white, lightly distressed it and waxed it - clear wax over the paintwork and liming (white) wax on the table top.

You can see what I meant about the drawer sides being visible in this photo above.

I'm also just about to put the finishing touches on a little pine side table I bought a couple of days ago, I think it will be a keeper as I have just the spot for it on my deck, right between my wicker armchairs.

Once that is done, that will be it for me and painting projects for the year. I'm closed for commissions from now until the end of January so I can spend the next few weeks getting into the Christmas spirit in a relaxed fashion...baking Christmas treats with my kids, attending the school end of year Christmas concert and prize-giving assembly, Christmas shopping, packing for our holiday home to NZ for Christmas (which we are all VERY excited about!), then enjoying the rest of the school holidays in January before school starts again in February.  Sounds like a long time away but I bet it will all go in a flash.  Always does!

I have one more market stall for the year, The Port Macquarie Foreshore Market next Saturday 8th December.  I will be having some super special deals on the day so if you are local and have had your eye on something, here's your chance to grab a bargain!  Even better if you want to make me an offer before the day...you can contact me here if you want to do that.  And you can see here what I have got for sale at present.

Before & After: French Country Style Dining Table

I've had this table for quite a while...I kept finding handy spots for it in my own home as a sewing table, a desk, and a second dining table before one day a couple of months ago I decided its time had come for the makeover I had been envisaging ever since I spotted it for sale.

I started off by stripping the honey coloured varnish off the tabletop...always a pleasure to get rid of this!

In the above shot you can see the nice wide planks that the tabletop was made out of...I love the character of these.

For this stripping job I used a heat gun and sander to remove the varnish fully.  Sometimes I choose to use paintstripper but I find the heatgun quicker and easier (and cheaper!) for some jobs.  Heatguns are particularly good when the surface you are stripping is flat and has a fairly thick even coating on it.  Obviously paintstripper is better for more detailed pieces...in the last couple of weeks I stripped an ornate sideboard right back to bare timber and that took lots and lots of paintstripper...too fiddly for the heatgun!

I didn't take photos of the middle part of the process, but once the tabletop was stripped, I flipped it upside down and primed and painted the legs, before lightly distressing them.

To get the whitewashed look on the tabletop, I used the process I developed and explained in this post.

Here it is, all done...

The table goes really well with these industrial style stools that I had reupholstered in a taupe gingham oilcloth.

The table legs are the same colour as the sideboard in the background 

(as at 1/11/12 this is still available for sale).

Before and After: Pale Blue Hutch Dresser