Oh, friends! It’s done 
Done, done, done, done. My dining room sprucing up project is over and I’m so happy with the result. The room feels warmer and more welcoming.
Okay, so here are the big before, during and after pictures (you know that’s what you came for)!
This is the dining room before. Heavily lacquered, cherry furniture. Please note the so 1990s green upholstery on the chairs….
So to start refinishing the furniture, I drug it outside and sanded off the lacquer on all the pieces …
This took about 20 times longer than I was expecting. About half way through I started to wonder if all this furniture rehabbing was really a good idea. Not that I had much choice at that point. So, I kept sanding…
I wiped everything with Mineral Spirits to get all the crud off. Next, I painted on the primer…
Then I painted the chairs black (satin finish) and used Minwax Wipe-on Poly to seal the paint and make it more durable.
After all eight chairs were painted, it was time to reupholster the seats. I hired this big, strong, and handsome guy for the grunt work. I left the ugly green fabric on but there was cording that had to be ripped the heck off.
I bought this gorgeous, and I so mean GORGEOUS light blue toile print from fabric.com. I stapled it over the original green fabric. Here’s a close up:
Then I felt happy because the chairs were entirely done. But not that happy because I still had a gazillion things to do. So, I sanded, primed, and painted some more…
I painted the corner cabinet a creamy color so it would pop against my chocolate walls…
Once I finished the table, I added a runner, vase, and some candles…
And … Voila!! A fresh dining room that I am totally in love with
All said and done, the total price for this project was under $200. That includes the table accessories. Not too bad and much cheaper than a new set of furniture!
Let me know what you think
It was the builder’s. I added $5 light covers from Hobby Lobby!
Definitely! I’m going to take a refinishing hiatus though
Thank you so much!
Oh boy, I have no idea exactly how long the whole thing took. It was a month of work – some days I worked on it, some days I didn’t. I would guess 30 hours?
Oh Jenny you did a fantastic job!! That was a LOT of work! WOW it looks wonderful!♥
You are a rockstar for all that sanding!! Great job reusing what you had. Looks awesome!!
absolutely gorgeous! your worked so hard on this. makes me want to re-do my dining room and i don’t even have one.
Wow! I LOVE the made over chairs, they look fabulous. The cabinet is gorgeous. Great job!
Did you do it all with a paintbrush or was any spray painting involved?
I used a paint brush for this project, mostly because I didn’t want to drag everything outside
Holy Moly, girl! That is a lot of sanding! It looks beautiful!
Alyshia
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