Dining Room Table & Chairs Make-Over

Black is Back--Dining Room Chairs & Table Make Over!

When our friends James & Amy Folkerts asked me if I knew anyone who needed a free dining room set, my first response was "Oh yes I'm sure I can think of somebody!" because anytime anyone offers me anything for cheap or well, FREE as in this case, I absolutely cannot turn it down! (Insert predictions for seeing me on "Hoarders: Buried Alive" one day...)
I knew my sister Melanie and her new husband Michael needed something so they made arrangements to get it to their new house and POOF instant eating area! Well...not exactly...because THIS is what they received:

Now, I have no idea what causes a dining room set to end up looking this way, but I DO know that the Fabulous Folkerts (as I like to call them now) have 4 small children AND pets and they had had this set a really long time. So there you go. The mission: to make it look like new!

I invested in quite a few cans of Valspar black satin spray paint (my only complaint is their new ergo-dynamic spray nozzles: easier on the fingers, yes, but I can't attach my handy-dandy sprayer attachment to them. Oh well. My fingers are getting stronger with every spray paint project...) and Melanie and I picked out the PERFECT fabric in a gray chevron print. I think we ended up using approx. 9 cans of spray paint on the entire project. At approx $6/can, it was still better than investing the time AND money into canned paint.
The Chevron fabric at Premier Fabrics in Memphis, TN was $10/yard and we needed about 3.5 yards. Happy birthday to Melanie. :)

This is me using the power drill to un-attach the seat bottoms. I feel extremely powerful when using a power drill. Big props to my husband for having a cordless one and big props to Michael Caffee for having a corded one that I ended up having to use when my cordless one died. Yay, manly tools. :)
I wish we had gotten a pic of me spray painting the chairs and table outside (two separate days) because it was HOT and VERY meticulous. We are talking squats, planks, and yoga positions trying to get all up in every crack and crevice!
I must say that the whole thing turned out awesome and I really enjoyed working on this with Melanie! She was available to help play with my kids to distract them while I worked, she cleaned up the dining room several times so we could move things around AND she cleaned the furniture after it got dusty outside drying. Plus she and Michael polyurethaned the table so it wouldn't scratch and could be eaten on.

Close-up on the chairs. I absolutely love the fabric!!!!

 At Melanie's request, I did NOT distress or age this dining room set like I would have if it were for myself. Mel's style is a little more modern and clean-cut whereas mine is more vintage funky fun so we compromised on the fabric (Thank you Melanie, I am so happy you agreed to it!) but I agreed to not distress the edges. I LOVE it!

 The entire project cost us less than $100! SWEET! Thanks Fabulous Folkerts! :)