Table & Chairs - Before & After

Here's a little before and after project Country Mouse and I tackled the other weekend. Country Mouse has this old folding table and chairs set from 1970 or so. And it had seen better days...

Nothing that a few cans of spray paint, oilcloth fabric, and a stable gun can't fix! Here's how we made this sad looking table and chairs set happy again.

First we dug around in the man room (garage) where nothing is organized how we would organize it, so it takes a bit of time until we find the perfect fitting tool, yay! We take these little guys off all the chairs and the table so that the table top and chair seats are removed and ready to be covered with lovely new fabric. Then we removed all of the old staples holding on the 1970's cloth with a flathead screwdriver. Then it went in the trash, bye-bye 1970!

With the tabletop and chair seats removed and staples out, we just needed to wash and sand any rusty spots and we were ready to paint. We found a great color to match our fabric - Watermelon by Krylon (indoor/outdoor - metal-wood-wicker-all purpose spray paint).

How to spray paint...Country Mouse reminded me that the key is to apply light coats so it doesn't get all drippy looking. If you end up with a few drips, just let it dry and then sand it and try again. No biggie. It happened to me a few times. We had to apply several coats to get a nice even looking color.

While you wait for the paint to dry in between coats of spray paint, admire your fabric and imagine how glorious this will look when you are all done!

After admiring the fabric, grab your scissors. Lay the seat over the fabric (think about the fabric placement and how you would like it to show) and cut the fabric, leaving enough to fold over and staple.


Stapling...make sure you have the correct size of staples for the gun as well as for when you staple (make sure they are not too long and end up going through to the other side!) You don't want any sharp staples sticking up through your table top or worse yet - your seat!!

We stapled one time on the middle edge of each side and made sure the fabric laid nicely before stapling around the entire perimeter.

Once you are satisfied with your paint job and it has dried, attach your tabletop and seats. And step back to admire...

So what do you think? Are you inspired to break out the spray paint? There are so many colors to choose from, so don't worry if pink isn't your favorite color. Let's just say the boys won't be using this one for their poker games :) We will be using this at our show near the Itasca Country Fairgrounds in Grand Rapids on July 25th and 26th. There will be a vintage car show as well. Come say hi if you're in the area, we'd love to meet you in person!