It wasn’t that I didn’t love my black furniture. It was that I wanted a change but an inexpensive change. Grandpa and I put our heads together and came up with a plan. A VERY inexpensive plan. We decided that we would re-paint the table and chairs, and the bar stools and change the rug and change the hutch and put something under the cupboards. Grandpa is very handy so I can always count on him to do things well.
So. We moved the table and chairs into the garage, where he set up a place to paint. I bought 12 cans of Krylon spray paint in a color called Pebble and had a quart of paint matched to it. We bought some foam brushes. Scary !
What if it doesn’t work? What if the color is wrong? What if ……? The answer to these and other related questions was “So What?” Start over.
In the picture above you can see the black hutch against the wall. I had an idea about that. I found a home for all of the things inside of the top of the hutch and with the help of our trusty neighbor, the top of the hutch was taken off and moved to the basement. I decided to leave the bottom of the hutch black as well as the bench in the window. When all was said and done we did re-paint the top of the sideboard where the glassed piece had been.
Now we were ready to paint the big stuff. We. Grandpa would laugh at my choice of words. He was ready to paint. Meanwhile I struggled with the color of the rug. At first I replaced it with a very short red shag. Red is a color I have now and then throughout the rooms. I didn’t like it. It was too dominant. I took it back and got a putty-colored rug which was just perfect.
HERE IT IS ! Grandpa painted the top of the table with many layers. It looks beautiful. Once everything was dry and before we brought things back into the house, I used a piece of fine sandpaper and distressed some of the edges of the chairs and the table. It worked great because the black showed through and gave everything a vintage look.
Mirrors were 50% off this particular week at Hobby Lobby. I bought this very large mirror which fit perfectly on the wall above the sideboard part of the hutch. Because of the size and the placement of the mirror, it brings in the whole outdoors and twice as much light as before. We took the plain, black knobs off of the bottom of the hutch and replaced them with vintage knobs which look like doorknobs. Also at 50% off at Hobby Lobby ! (You can see one in the bottom left of the picture above)
Now for the bar stools.
We painted these three stools entirely with spray paint. By wiping and using sandpaper, we gave them a vintage look, just like the table. I found some wonderful velour fabric at the bolt-end store and covered the seats. You can see the putty-colored rug behind the stool, which matches perfectly with the new covers on each seat.
Then it came time for the bead board. We painted it with a spray paint called Hammered Silver and ran it along under the cupboards. I had a bright idea first, which didn’t work. We first painted the bead board with a couple of coats of magnetic paint and then covered the board with the finish paint. It didn’t work. Magnets wouldn’t stick as it said they would on the can. I was dissappointed because I thought it would be helpful to use magnets to put up recipes anywhere I wanted to along the area under the cupboards. Beware of the promises on the magnetic paint can !
Then, I did something that I haven’t done for many, many years. I MADE CURTAINS ! We didn’t need curtains but I thought it would be fun. I chose a very subtle quilting print with a hint of gray and a hint of red. I made them generously full and a few inches above the counter top so that they wouldn’t get dirty. Then I prowled around for the curtain rod and found a wonderful vintage-looking rod at Ross. It was $3.99. The tie-backs which match the rod were $2.99 for a package of two. The little, glass knobs on the ends of each make it really fun and nostalgic.
Everything feels so new and it certainly feels lighter !
“Change is always uncomfortable . . . .if it’s worth making.”
-Unknown-
