Kitchen Table and Chairs: Mission Complete

Once I get started on projects, it's hard to stop.  So, as promised, here's what I've been working on.

Remember, oh, like a year ago when I redid my kitchen table?

 

Remember how I refinished my kitchen chairs? No? Oh, that's right. I never finished.

Truth be told, I lost steam with the project after I spent hours sanding my fingers to the bone.  The chairs sat in my parent's garage languishing. I can only imagine how lonely they felt.

No longer. They are finished.

To refresh your memory, this is what they looked like before:

I had completed all the sanding on all the parts of the chairs, and even had put together two of the chairs and stained them and everything.  The problem was the caning in the seats and the backs. It was broken, and so I pulled it all out. I had planned to put leather in the seats and stretch it really tight in place of the caning. But, I'm not an expert leather worker, and the task seemed very daunting.

So, my mom called a few weeks ago and said, "Emily, let's finish your chairs."  So, we did.

This is what they look like now.  I had bought a leather hide on ebay for like $50 about a year ago.  I got some particle board from my grandpa's house and cut it to fit the seats. I took a 1.5" foam mattress pad that I bought at a yard sale for $2 and cut it to fit as well. Then, we did some stapling and voila! There's the seat!

This is what the set looks like now.  I really love it. The chairs and table are solid wood, which is fantastic, and the leather is really comfortable. And I can finally stop using folding chairs at our table.

One other thing that I haven't quite figured out is what to to with the backs. There is a groove where the caning was, and it needs some sort of trim. I bought some ribbon trim stuff and glued it to one of the chairs. I'm trying to decide if I like it enough to put it on all of them.

What do you think?

By the way, I'm sorry the pictures aren't very good, but this room doesn't ever get very good light, and especially not in the winter.

In the third picture of the before chair pictures, you will see a seat. I didn't use them in the final product. Wonder what I did with them? I'm so glad you asked.

They got transformed into picture frames.  And, I made some custom silhouettes to go inside.

They were super easy. Basically, I got some pictures of our family that I loved, and Daniel used his awesome computer skills to turn them into silhouettes.  We printed them out and I used a secret combination of scissors and exact-o knives to cut them out.  I bought some poster paper, glued the silhouettes to them, and staples the paper to the frame. The end.

I've still got more projects to come, so stay on the edge of your seat.