wild thing...

While the foyer paint dries I thought I would share with you all a project I did over the summer.

I had been thinking about getting new dining room chairs for awhile {not quite what you were thinking I would be talking about from the post title huh!}. The set I had was from my grandma and I loved them I just wanted something with upholstered seats since if we have more then 4 guests we have to use them as extra seating for the living room. I also wanted something that I would not mind painting unlike my grandparent's set. So I started searching craigslist and after a few months of looking I finally found some chairs were to good to pass up. The woman was selling them {6 total} for $20.00! I mean really it was like she was paying me to take them home... well not really but you get the idea... cheap! There was not a really great picture of the chairs online but I sort of could tell that I would probably love them :) so Dave being the great husband that he is went and picked them up for me and this is what he walked in the door with.

Yeah, did I forget to mention that they would need some love. Don't worry... don't they already look so much better without that fabric :)

They each got a good sanding {the woman who owned them ran a daycare and lets just say I think at one point theses chairs got a good coat of strawberry jelly added to them} and I removed the old fabric and went with an animal print {are you starting to understand where the title of this post is coming from :)} fabric that is also an outdoor print which makes it easier to clean up after all those food related spills. Here is one last picture of the dining room before.

And here it is again with the "new" chairs.

 

My one regret is that I painted the cane webbing. The frame of the chairs really did need to be painted since they were in such bad condition {remember a day care was their prior home} and so I just went for it but after I had painted the webbing I started to see beautiful french chairs online that were painted white but the owners had kept the original cane webbing wood and I loved them! Oh well. The other two chairs that are not shown do need new webbing and thanks to this tutorial on Miss Mustard Seed's blog I am not afraid :) So maybe one day when I replace those two I can do the whole set if I still like the natural look.

And of course I am still keeping my grandma's chairs and cannot wait to use them again one day in a kitchen with a big farmhouse table. Right now they are safe and sound in storage until that day comes :)