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

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!

Last fall I had a great idea...I wanted a "farmhouse"-style table for myself, surrounded by eight different pressed-back chairs--all painted white.

It was a great idea...but the execution turned out to be...flawed (see the above links for the rest of the story!). As a result, I sold the table to one woman, six of the chairs to another, and two of the chairs were returned to the friend I originally purchased them from (but fixed and painted).


Since last fall, she has been on the hunt for her own set of pressed-back chairs...she wanted a total of ten! She is near to completing her set...and I am finishing them for her.

I showed you a sneak peak of one of her chairs here. Here is the before, in case you don't remember!


Here are three more chairs that I found for her:


Look familiar? They are the same style as the chairs for the Gathering Table set I also finished last fall! But these ones were a real bargain. Remember the $10 table I shared? These were actually part of the deal! (It was rough, really...)


I finished six of the chairs this last week! There are two more to go, but they require a bit more structural work than I have had time for yet.


This is the chair I replaced the seat on...