home decor and garden are very famous in the world

The workshop has occupied so much time and attention this summer that I have a LOT of furniture projects waiting for me! 

I’m at the point of wondering “what to tackle next?” 

I decided to go for the biggest bang—as far as reclaiming space is concerned! 

The table was dismantled, so it wasn’t taking up much room…but I had FIVE finished chairs stacked up in my bedroom, so I decided to finish the set so I could at least have my room back!

If you’ve been with me for long, you know I have a long and glorious history with pressed-back chairs. 

I love ’em. 

One of my first major projects was this gathering table:

…and I loved it so much I later refinished a similar table in black:

Then there was my grand idea of refinishing a dining set with different pressed-back chairs for myself:

…which I didn’t end up keeping, but another friend of mine decided to run with the idea.  She bought up grundles of pressed-back chairs, and I finished them for her.  When she had multiples, though, I received some of the chairs back…in payment!

And that, dear friends, is why I had five pressed-back chairs cluttering up my bedroom!  As luck would have it, I found a sixth chair at Deseret Industries recently, and I was given this table (don’t you love the legs??)…

…what if I put them together??

Ahh…a match made in heaven!

The table top was sanded down and re-stained in Minwax Dark Walnut, which for some reason didn’t want to get very dark.  I liked it anyway.

The six chairs—all different—are painted with a Behr Color match of Sherwin-Williams “Creamy.”  They are glazed with a watered-down burnt-umber craft paint.  That is NOT my preferred form of glaze anymore—but some of these chairs were started long ago, and everything needed to match!

I like these table legs better…

I had fun dressing up the table a little bit….

…someday I’ll have a table that looks good with this doily runner; it’s my goal in life!

Anyone up for an al fresco dinner?

Domestically Speaking	Elizabeth & Co.
Primitive & Proper	The CSI Project
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Beyond the Picket Fence	Someday Crafts
Knick of Time	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Common Ground	My Repurposed Life
From My Front Porch to Yours	All Star Block Party
Cowgirl Up!	{aka} design Coastal Charm

I actually wanted to call this the “Two-Friends-Two-Tone-Table,” but that was kind of a mouthful!

Once upon a time, one of my dear friends got it into her head that she wanted me to refinish a dining set for her.  The fact that she lives 750 miles away from me was no deterrent to her…nor was the fact that she has never physically seen any of the pieces I have refinished.  She was determined!

So the search began—long distance and on-line—to find a suitable table.  We were on a tight budget, since her husband is one of the nation’s many unemployed.

Enter Friend 2.  Upon hearing of our search, she offered to let me have a vintage dining set that had belonged to her husband’s mother.  Yes, let me have.  As in—for free.  She knew it was for another friend of mine, and that they had no money.  So out of the goodness of her heart, she donated to our “cause.”

Friend 1 and Friend 2 don’t know each other, and probably will never meet.  But bless them both, for having faith in ME to put this little transaction together!

The table was completely disassembled when I first saw it, but I fell for the chunky legs…hard.

The table top has pull-out leaves on each end and a beautiful apron (it’s the piece on the right, leaning up against the dresser that later became yellow).

Plus a pretty stretcher (it’s not quite so blurry in real life).

And six chairs, one of which is an arm chair.

Friend 1 only ever saw the pictures, but she trusted me to bring this dining set into the current century!  I’m sure she had a few misgivings along the way, though!

There were a lot of loose joints and such, so I had to do some gluing (this Bessey clamp was a marvel to work with—I borrowed it from a friend, and almost didn’t give it back):

…as well as some creative repair work on the arm chair.  The dowel had broken off, so I used a 3/8” paddle bit to drill out the old dowel, and then I cut a new one to replace it and re-glued the arm back on the chair.

I enlisted some of my short help to sand chairs…

He looks thrilled, doesn’t he??

I sanded the table top completely down—you can see how dark the original finish was on the leaves! 

The rest of the table top was not in nearly that good of condition!

The grooves on the top of the table reminded me of a checkerboard, and inspired me to try a two-color staining job.  The only problem was that the grooves did not extend down the sides of the table top—but that was nothing a little work with a handsaw and some black paint couldn’t fix!

I painted the base of the table (and the chairs) black, and distressed them to highlight the turnings and carvings. 

The dark stain on the table is Minwax Antique Walnut, and the lighter stain is Pecan.

Here you can see it with both leaves extended.

I love how the checkerboard effect shows up even on the sides with the leaves closed.

I wasn’t brave enough to pick out fabric for the chairs for someone else, so with the help of another friend, we took lots of pictures of bolts of fabric and sent them (via iPhone) before she chose this pretty black floral/paisley print.

The fabric on the seats wasn’t really dirty or in bad condition, so I didn’t remove it—I just added a new layer of batting and stapled the new fabric over all…plus a bit of my sleeve…  (whoops!)

And there you have it:  the Two Tone Table!  I really love the look of it.  It wouldn’t have been bad at all in my now-empty front room…

…but alas…my friend came and took it away (yes, from 750 miles away). 

I hope it’s happy in its new home!

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Thanks to It’s So Very Cheri, Stylish Once Again, My Repurposed Life, and Simple Home Life for featuring this project!

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Linking up here:

Coastal Charm’s Nifty Thrifty Tuesday	Topsy Turvy Tuesdays
Domestically Speaking’s Power of Paint	Someday Crafts’ Whatever Goes Wednesday
Hookin’ Up with House of Hepworths	No Minimalist Here’s Open House Thursday
Friday Remodelaholic	2805
My Simple Home Life’s Simple Creations Friday	Miss Mustard Seed’s Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk’s Saturday Night Special	The DIY Show Off
Primitive & Proper	I Heart Naptime
Beyond the Picket Fence’s Under $100 Party	My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Perfectly Imperfect	{Primp}
Mod Vintage Life	My Repurposed Life
Stylish Once Again	It’s So Very Cheri
Common Ground	Thrifty Décor Chick

It is well known that I have an abiding love affair for pressed-back chairs (as evidenced here, here, and here). In fact, I think altogether I have painted something like 21 pressed-back chairs, all in various shades of white! However, about two weeks ago I was seized with a sudden urge to do a set in BLACK. Lucky for me, I found the perfect dining set to fill the need!

I got a 48" round oak table with a lovely pedestal base. As you can see, the finish on the top was in poor shape.


And six of these gorgeous pressed-back chairs. They are the first of this design that I've seen!

I wiped all the chairs down with Liquid Sander/Deglosser. It's wonderful for curvy spindles and the like. One chair required some repair work, but then I set up my "assembly line."


I sanded the top of the table down to bare wood. I am never afraid of a poor finish on the top--that just makes it easier to sand down! More to be scared of are those thick, ultra-durable finishes that take hours to sand off. The base and apron were painted black.


There's not too much to be excited about when the chairs are completely painted in flat black. At this point, you might wonder what you have done...

But then you attack them all with sandpaper and a few coats of polyurethane, and look what you have instead!




My kids got all excited when I brought this one in the house to take pictures (it's sitting in our front room at the moment), and asked if we were going to keep it...


If I thought I could keep it all to myself...and not have to sit at a table that always seems perpetually jam-sticky...I just might!