Kitchen Chairs

Hi! 

Look at this funny Lupin that's blooming in the fall!  They normally bloom in June!  I pass this little plant on my walk and I finally took a picture. I wonder why it doesn't know it's the fall?

And speaking of fall, here's some lovely fall foliage in our backyard.

So, this week I'll share my kitchen chairs.  A long time ago, my mom and my in-laws bought this table and chairs for us.  The table came from a set that some friends had bought but didn't need.  I'm not sure where the chairs came from.  Anyway, they looked like this.

(This was when I was just trying out the microwave and toaster oven on this side!)

I'd been tired of the yellowish finish for a long time, but never really did anything about it.  Until finally I did 3 things!

First, I did a white chair.  I used Zinsser primer with a foam brush.  Then I did 2 coats of cream + white with a foam brush. Then a coat of white with a bit of cream on the seat and back and lastly another white coat.

So, that was nice, but I wanted to try something different with green home-made chalk paint.  I used a green latex paint I got from the Restore and the green latex paint that's used as the accent color in our kitchen to make some chalk paint.  I could never find calcium carbonate and I didn't want to buy a bunch of unsanded grout. (My MIL actually gave me some sanded grout which I tried, but it didn't work! ;-))  Somewhere I found a recipe that used powdered plaster of paris.  Here's a good link that compares the different recipes.  

Anway when I found this Venetain Plaster for $5 at the Restore,

I thought I could make it work.  

I used 1/2 c water, 1/2 c plaster, 1 1/2 c paint.  

I smudged it all over one chair, let it dry. Sanded and smudged more paint on.  I finished it with an old can of Minwax Wood Finish Early American (that my mom had used to refinish the wardrobe.)

I tried this with one chair and decided I liked it so I did the other.  That's why they don't quite match exactly. 

  But they're close enough.

Here are the four chairs.

 

I went ahead and did the last chair white.  With some white chalk paint I made.  I did the same as the green, but finished with my wax.

 I thought I could compare the latex chair and the chalk paint chair.  So far they seem to be holding up the same!  And the green ones are doing ok, but they're getting more scratched up on the edges.  I should probably put some wax on them. :-)

Till tomorrow! :-)