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 looks great! I love the fabric choice, very pretty. Now what are you going to do with all your spare time?
Whoa girl…YOU ROCKED IT OUT!!! That looks SO great! I absolutely LOVE the fabric choice…I’m amazed you have the time to do this…I’m so far behind, I wonder when I’ll ever catch up to be able to use my free quart of Glidden paint to do my daughter’s cute little cubby cabinet that I chose the paint for. Sigh…great job once again…looks SO beautiful!
Gotta say babe, I was not sure on this project at first but the before/after tells the story & it turned out amazing.
My smart/beautiful/talented girl. Great job. Love you.
Looks great! Hard Work paid off big time!!!
-HB
http://www.crafteegyrl.wordpress.com
http://www.crafteegyrl.etsy.com
WOW!!! What a great job – everything looks fabulous – your corner cabinet really pops now – when you were mentioning the redo – I actually had to scroll back to find it in the pic as it was hiding back there – now it stands out. Love the toile – everything looks amazing – you must be so happy.
Kudos to you for taking on such a big project! It turned out amazing
I think you are awesome is what I think! The dining room looks fantastic!
Gorgeous. Definitely worth all the hard work!
Holy Cow – this turned out gorgeous – what a yeoman’s job to get this all done.
hello – first time poster. Love the new dinning room – great transformation. I was wondering where you picked up the rug from?
The rug is from Ikea
Thanks so much! I am now devoting all my time to get ready for that 3 day craft show in Plano in Oct. WHAT was I thinking?!?!
J- That looks awesome! Great job girl. I LOVE the toile against the black.
Looks awesome! You’re right…so warm and inviting! Now our dining room is in pieces. Not redoing furniture though, just painting! Can’t wait to see your finished room in person! Now you can start beading away!!!
Looks great! You did a wonderful job, looks so nice new and fresh! You gotta love toile, it makes everything beautiful lol :0)
I am SO jealous! Looks AMAZING!! My dining room is SO boring, but I doubt I could ever make it look half as good as yours!! GREAT JOB!! P.S. you have inspired me to hit up trades days this weekend to find some old dressers to re-finish for the kids rooms and an old desk to make pretty for my office!!
It looks wonderful! Well done!
It looks absolutely amazing. It might have taken longer than you liked, but it was so worth it.
Looks great, Jenny!
Jenny just catching up… it looks great!! Way to go!! And love the table decorations too…. did you make the runner?
that ceiling is BEGGING to be anything other than white
great job! it looks amazing.
this looks GREAT. How long did the whole project take you? You did a fantastic job on the furniture!!!
pop over to my blog to see my bedroom redo!!
WOW! I love it!
WOW! I just redid my dining room too! Yours turned out GREAT also! Stop by my blog and check out mine. http://Www.thekublers.blogspot.com Be sure to LINK it up to my Trash To Treasures Party & adding my button! It will get you an additional entry in an UPCOMING GIVEAWAY i’ll be doing! Following my blog will get you another one TOO! Happy Blogging & hope you join the party!
Jenny, that looks fantastic!! Great way to update those old cherry DR sets. Love, love it.
It looks great! And that corner cabinet with that wall color, I love it!
I absolutely love the transformation! Well worth all the hard work. I like how you chose to do the cabinet and table different colors. It really breaks it up.
That looks like it was a LOT of work, but you did a great job! Love the transformation.
That looks gorgeous!
this is gorgeous!
it looks amazing!
LOVE the color choices (especially the white hutch)! Wonderful job on the transformation! ~Ashley~ shanty2chic
huge, i mean HUGE improvement! you did a great job.
Job well done! A lot of hardwork and well worth it. Good job!
Great job! I love the new look! It really updates things!
Wow! Love the updated furniture! I’m definitely going to look at that style of furniture in a different way now – very sweet. Good job!
Fantastic job. It looks better than something out of a magazine.
Congratulations!
Alyssa
lifeoflyssie.com
This is a beautiful refinish job. I have a table similar which I plan to paint white. I’m glad yours wasn’t too difficult. Thanks for sharing.
I’m totally enamored over your corner hutch. It’s gorgeous and I’m drooling… seriously.
Love it all. It’s so much work, but definitely worth it, right?
WOW! Such hard work but totally worth it! I love the fabric!
Oh! I really like this! Great job!!! Where did you get your ceiling lamp? I like that too
STUNNING! That’s all I have to say. STUNNING!
Wow, it looks great! Way to use that elbow grease!
I love it! I know exactly how much work that sanding is. But I know you are glad you did it right as it looks so great. I especially love the orange color pops with the chocolate and black. It is really pretty.
Love the fabric with the color of paint. It all looks fantastic!!
Bravo! What a lovely job you did.
Love the table! The whole room looks amazing!! Great Job! I love redoing furniture myself. Check out my blog!!! Have a great weekend!
The whole room looks fantastic! I know what you mean about the sanding, it is HARD work. But it is so worth it in the end!
I love how your furniture turned out! The corner cabinet looks beautiful against your dark walls. I will have to check that toile out! I have been looking for a blue and brown toile for a curtain in my laundry room.