EEEK! to Chic. My "new" dining room table.

Being the furniture freak that I am, I constantly have my nose in the Yokota Swap Page and every other page like it. It's to the point where if there is something "good" that I may have not seen, [a piece of wooden furniture, or furniture that needs some good lovin'], you will probably see my name tagged by a friend somewhere in the comments. It's my passion....and kind of an obsession, and I make it known! You will see my "likes" on furniture that I can't afford, hoping someone will see it's potential and BUY IT!

There was a picture of the sweetest table and 2 chairs on the swap page that I was so hoping one of my friends would fall in love with..... well, I guess they never did. BUT! That's okay! A few days later, the owner of it messaged me and said, "I noticed that you liked my table, no one else showed any interest in it, do you want it for free?" After I gathered myself from my 15 year old giggle fest session, I answered her back, "Yes! I'd love it!" Turns out, she was in my building so it was totally meant to be. Thank you, Jesus!

Well, I got the table, did some research of what I wanted it to look like... and started to give it a new life! It turned out absolutely perfect. Just what I hoped for! 

Here's a little DIY of how I did my little table :)

Before:
[don't mind my fur baby's scary eyes in the corner!]

I started off by sandin' her down, chairs first. Most of the time I sand by hand, but considering the size of the piece, I was going to save myself hours and lots of sweat and muscle pains, and just used an electric sander :) I sanded the chairs all the way down to the bare wood so that the paint I would use, along with the stain I would use, would have no problem sticking and being completely even.

I painted the back of the chairs and the legs black, then stained the seats a deep walnut.

I found two chairs on the side of the road that were in a pretty "unloved" condition.

They both looked like this (below). I liked that they were different from the ones that I already had, yet matched each other. 

Unfortunately, The seats would not get to a color that would look nice being stained, so I ended up painting them completely black.

Seriously, how cute is this?!

My beyond awesome husband sanded down the table top and the base for me so when I got home that night all I would have to do was apply the stain to the top and black paint on the base!

After the stain on my chairs and table top were completed, and everything else was dry, I did my distressing. If you are wondering, "will she ever paint something and not distress it?" The answer is "no, probably not." haha. No, I'm just kidding, I am sure I will, eventually. ;)

The way I distress is completely random. No reason or pattern, I just go with it and if I feel like I've gone overboard, it's nothing to just paint it over and try again, so don't let it scare you.

The other two chairs that I painted solid black, I did not distress. I loved the look of them matching each other, but not the two that came with the table. 

When I was finally finished distressing, I would then apply the clear coat. I used the Mixwax Indoor/Outdoor Helsman Spar Urethane [clear satin]. 

My husband rocks for letting me finish this inside!

I only did one coat of this, and let it dry over night....

I woke up this morning to my beautiful, dry, absolutely precious new painted pedestal table and chairs.

Perfection, in my eyes. I am so excited to have done this piece! I never would have thought I would have the opportunity to have been given a FREE table.. then found FREE chairs!!

BUT GUESS WHAT! IT DOESN'T END THERE!

Today, on the side of the road.....

:)