Dining Room Table and Chairs

We  had my original dining room table and chairs from my childhood home. This remarkably modern dining room set is somewhere around forty years old. Surprising how timeless they ended up looking. Unfortunately, the natural wood finish did look a little dated - or at least did not fit into our overall plan. Originally buried (and unused) under tons of household detritus, we cleaned it off and prepped it for paint. Sanded both table and chairs, spray primer and finished with a flat black.

She said: I think it's funny that he breezed over the most important part of this post. The table and chairs that are over 40 years old - were his fathers. His dad passed away not too long ago, and he had the old table and chairs but wasn't sure if he wanted to keep them. After I saw them up close and personal, I realized that they were a classic style and very retro (which is a style of decor David loves). I knew they just needed to be revived with some sanding and paint. But more important, I wanted to save any items we could that brought back memories of his dad.  He doubted me through the entire process, but when he saw the finished product he admitted that keeping the set was the right choice.

The dining set had been at his brothers home for a few years prior to David saving them from being tossed out.

BEFORE

  

AFTER

Casual observers will note the trippy seat cushion pattern - which is actually the original upholstery for these chairs! The chairs had been recovered twice, but we found the original trippy blue/green/yellow worked great with the black furniture and the mood we were trying to create.

She said: I originally planned to reupholster the dinning room chairs with a natural colored burlap. It was unusual but practical and durable for fabric and would have fit into the room decor perfectly. After stripping off two other fabric covers we found that the ORIGINAL fabric for the chairs was still intact.  

This was a big deal because it was the fabric David grew up with - the original fabric from his childhood. In this case , sentimental won over style. It was obvious (based on his reaction from the fabric still being there) that it was much more important to keep the original upholstery rather than match the decor. I like to think that there is no wrong decision if you've got an emotional attachment to a piece - thus we found a way to work the old fabric/design into the new room.  I chose some art work which contained some blues/greens/yellows - so that when in the room it would all pull together. I think it worked out just fine. 

To see the rest of this rooms final completion photos go here

This is the dinning room set BEFORE the rest of the room was decorated. 

To see the rest of this rooms final completion photos go here

Dining Room Apocalypse

The dining room itself was a disaster. When the house was purchased, the crappy carpet was pulled and it was discovered there was nothing but concrete floor. For the remainder of the years that I've owned it *6* the floor has been nothing but unappealing and unwelcoming concrete. I wanted a quick fix, not wanting to go through the entire process of removing the tile in the entire kitchen, so we were looking for a solution that would work for just the part of the floor that already had the concrete exposed. In addition to flooring, we obviously needed to paint.

BEFORE

I suck at painting, so Rochelle handled most of the paintwork

Stymied for last minute, easy flooring options, one of the guys on Remodeleze.com suggested vinyl flooring called TRAFFIC MASTER ALLURE (it's available at Home Depot). It's a really inexpensive solution, as you can install it yourself, it can go over any pre-existing flooring, and is about $2 square foot. The guy at Remodeleze.com said it was easy enough for the novice to pull off in a couple hours, so we rolled the dice.

It came out great!

Each piece of vinyl was 6" x 36" and attached to itself - like a giant carpet of vinyl (when done anyway). Looks like wood, durable, easy to install.

After that, all that was left was to move the finished Dining Set & Console table back in, and decoration.


AFTER

Ignore that random black/red rug. Rochelle was in the process of mopping the floor and it doesn't live in our new dining room :)

It came out excellent - especially since this project was more or less put into motion on a Monday evening, and finished on the following Saturday morning - just in time to start cooking Christmas dinner for friends/family.