Refreshing the Dining Room Table Set

My dining room table and chairs didn't match. The chairs were from one set and the table from another. I loved the chairs and I loved the compact size of the table. The fact that they didn't "match" was driving me crazy.

Over Winter Break I decided to paint the set and recover the chairs. I had some mis-tint paint I bought for $5 from Lowe's. It was a creamy white, very pretty and it had the primer already in it.

Some lessons learned:

• Don't try to paint outside in the cool damp winter weather.


• If you're using paint from a can, not spray paint, use a roller, not a paintbrush.


• Paint with primer in it, even just a satin finish, will dry tacky.


• When you have funky shaped chair seats, they don't make foam pads to fit, so you have to improvise.

Again, this isn't a tutorial, just some pics of my progress...

I sanded the table, this was after I tried painting the chairs outside and figured out that I would have to do this project inside.

This was the result of painting chairs outside in the cool, damp weather using a paint brush

 The result of painting inside where it's warm and dry, and using a mini-roller.

 The fabric I used on the seats.

I was able to buy a 4-pack of foam pads for the chairs, but they were square, whereas my chair seats were not. I had to improvise...

Chair pad with pieces of an old blanket to help fill in and thicken the pad.

Bob helped me staple everything to the bottom. We used a clear tablecloth to protect the fabric and padding from spills.

Finished chair pad

6 months after using the clear tablecloth ($5 at Walmart) I'm finding a couple of holes, but we do have cats and that doesn't help.

To fix the "tacky" issue I mentioned above, I sprayed a couple of coats of clear spray paint over the top of the table as soon as it warmed up enough to do so. It made a huge difference! Papers and napkins don't stick to the top of the table anymore.

I wish I had taken a "before" pic of the set so you could see the vast improvement a little paint, fabric, and a clear tablecloth gave this set!

The finished set!