This past weekend was a happy weekend. I finally, finally, put away the ORANGE maple chairs that have been haunting my kitchen for the past couple years. Orangey stained wood seems to gravitate towards me. Bye bye baby. That’s right, I finished the drop cloth upholstery project I was working on and I am super pleased with how this kitchen table makeover turned out. The chairs ended up pairing well with the salvaged pine harvest table I rehabbed this past autumn. Now if only someone would get around to hanging up the driftwood art on that blue wall… ahem.

I am disappointed to tell you that the before photos of the table were accidentally deleted from my camera. I do still have a photo of one of the chairs to show you, but the table. Sigh. Let me help you. Close your eyes. Now imagine a bright orange pine table chewed up by a dog and built to fit short people. This table was about 4″ shorter than standard table height. It was weird. Even after I rehabbed the kitchen table I was still using these Canadian-made maple chairs circa 1960 that had been part of our previous dining set up until Sunday. See below for photos.

Overall the kitchen table makeover was more work than I anticipated. It had one heck of a finish on it, that even the heavy duty stripper wouldn’t get off, and it involved a lot of sanding and Annie Sloan chalk paint in Coco to cover it up. The Coco by the way, was a huge surprise because it’s so grey in my kitchen. Always test a paint colour out in the room its going in because light plays a huge part in how it looks. The top was sanded down and then I neutralized the natural yellow pine tones with a pickling wash made from basic latex primer to give it a nice driftwood vibe.

If you can’t see why it had to go, well then gtfo. Good bye. So long. I don’t miss you. Now, onto the photos, which is why you are here. I saw something in those ugly pink chairs and I am relieved to know that I was right because they were alarming to look at in their original state.