DIY Newbie

As the title suggests, I am just starting to break into the DIY world, and while I consider myself fairly handy and capable, I am learning that there is a lot of patience needed when tackling any DIY job.

Case in point?  Our dining room table and chairs that we got for a bargain on craigslist.  The character of the table and chairs is really great, and the table is literally four feet wide, providing plenty of space for guests to dine over with ten chairs!  The set is from the 60s and has not had any part of it updated since then, so although I loved the character of it, I knew it needed some freshening up.

{ a before shot of one of the chairs. }

We are sort of going for a beach cottage type theme on the main floor of our house, without being over-the- top-annoying-beachy (very technical terms, I know...).  So I figured painting this gorgeous table and chairs a nice, bright white, would fit in nicely.  And then when I re-cover the cushions as well, it should bring them into this decade!

{ a work in progress... }

What I didn't realize is that priming ONE chair would take me nearly an hour!  With a total of ten chairs, that is a lot of time, and that is only for the first coat!  I have four chairs done, and hope to finish the rest of them in the next week or so.  Then, I can tackle the giant table.  It is a risky piece of furniture to paint, simply because of the amount of traffic a dining room table will see, but I have faith in the tips I have found online that it will all work out fine.  Fingers crossed!  

Stay tuned to see the final product once I finally get around to painting the table as well.  I am really excited about this room coming to life, as right now we very rarely use it.