Sunday, August 7, 2011

Dining Table Progress and a Sneek Peek!

I have two trains of thought right now. First is, if they can do it so can I and if I can do it anybody can do it! Let's add one more thought, "they make it look so easy and it's not!" The last few days I have been paint one of the Craigslist chairs I purchased. This chair has gone through quite a few changes. I first decided to paint the chair white, distress it, and wax it with both clear  and dark waxes. I only got to the clear wax and I kept looking at the chair with the "not sure" look. I love the white chair look however I felt like it need something else. I went hunting for more "drop cloth inspirations" and happened upon the fabulous Miss Mustard Seed blog and this french chair and the paint technique she used to achieve the look. I also found Little Place Called Home Sweet Home who used this same technique on a chair she had. What I really appreciated about LPCHSH's chair is she used what she had. She mixed a little paint here and there and came up with colors to achieve this look. I also posted a question on her blog and she responded right way, which really impressed me. So on to my chair, I invested in 4 Annie Sloan Chalk paints and really could not see my self spending any more money on paint. So working with what I had, I painted over the white with the Duck Egg Blue, let it dry, dry brushed Paris Gray, distressed, wax with clear, waxed with dark wax, showed it off to my hubby, kissed hubby as he headed off to bed, sat down looking at my chair for a half hour, and yes I picked up the paint brush again. It wasn't perfect! The dark wax gave it a more aged yellow look then the lovely antique look and the distressing had a hard look to it. So,  I opened up more Old White and dry brushed it, and wiped it off, distressed in some areas just until the white underneath showed, then sat back and knew it was finished!!!
Yesterday I started to work on reupholstering the chair. I have read many times over that any staple gun other then a pneumatic stapler is a waste of time, however after looking at some pricing on the whole thing (air compressor + staple gun) it didn't seem like an option. Plus, not everyone who does a reupholster job has a pneumatic, right? I went out and purchased an electric staple gun and got to work. Well for every 5 staples I shot, 4 of them I took out. Not only that but I couldn't pull the the fabric taut enough and get enough strength to staple. Now figure in the fact that I have weak wrists, I have tendinitis pretty bad (at times) in my left wrist, mildly in my right. I have been dealing with this for a couple of years and there really isn't much that can be done. Not only that but when I have gone into the Dr's. since my tendons don't swell up like the typical swelling they look at me like I am crazy. Top that off with the fact that the last flare up (the time before yesterday) I had was so bad they gave me Vicodin (can't take it) for the pain, something with that flare up did something and since then I have a constant dull (very manageable) ache and noticeable weakness in my wrists, who knew being a DIY required first-aid...haha! Okay I digress, but needless to say last night I started my regiment of Motrin, ice, and brace. So frustrated! I just can't handle the upholstering with weak wrists and a staple gun that needs strength and might! I complained to hubby, God love him and all is support of my various projects! Well, I think we will be getting the pneumatic staple gun. Until then my chair/s are put on hold, but I did want to show off a sneak peek of my paint job. I am pretty happy with the results and hope I can get to upholstering them soon.

What's a girl to do when she has the DIY bug and her project is put on hold? She starts another. I bought a table off of Craigslist for $25 dollars and started sanding it down, but I ended up putting a Varnish Stripper on it since sanding the edges has proved more difficult. With the sanding I got most (if not all) of the varnish off but wanted to make sure. I sanded the table and leaf on Friday night, added the stripper to the table yesterday (leaf today) and will sand and apply stain at some point this week. My older daughter has been on a mission trip to Israel since June 22nd, and comes home on Wed. (so happy!) so DIY will be put on hold when she is back.  In my search of table "how to's" I have found First Come's love and her table. I posted a comment and she responded right way. I am using her tips with my table.. Here are some pictures of my progress thus far.

Table top!
Leaf with Stripping Gel
My supplies!

Until next time!

1 comment:

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