My DIY Life: I Heart Painting Furniture

If you were to ask me, "hey, what's your favorite type of wood/stain/style for your home?"  Well, let's just say "cherry stained wood decor" would not make the top 3 ( or 10...or 100). You get my drift. Nonetheless, if you walked through the doors of our home you would honest to goodness think I MUST have an absolute infatuation with it!  The trip, the crown molding, the hard wood, the doors, ALL the furniture. Honestly, when we moved here EVERYTHING was cherry. And, had it not been for a little -umm, a lot- of loving me some painted furniture, we'd still live in a dark, but beautiful!- dungeon. (P.S. Not to mention that ALL furnishings were a nice, flaky, gold color. That was sarcasm. It was ugly.)

So, why oh why have I been so scared to tackle the dining room set?  Well. Namely, it's never my goal to ruin perfectly good furniture.

But, alas, I couldn't take it anymore. A few weeks ago I started tackling the chairs.  So far I've painted a couple Annie Sloan Old White and a couple the Paris Grey. Then I heavily distressed them and gave my best with her dark wax. I really wanted them to look like they have a history to them. 

I imagined a loving husband each evening pulling one of those chairs out from under his wife...Lol. Just kidding! Pulling the chair out for his wife at meals.  Or, a little kid using the side of the chair to scoot his way up to the table. And so away I distressed.  I really love them. I even recovered the seats with this beautiful fabric that is like burlap with a silver design. Shabby with some shine. I like that. 

The table.  Well, I'm not even going there right now. Remember my little mantra, "I don't want to ruin any furniture?"  Let's just say right now the table looks REALLY beautiful.  With a table cloth on it. Seriously. I'm not too worried, though. That's the thing about chalk paint. It forgives you:). So, when the table looks presentable, I'll show you some pics- maybe even the epic fail when I ran out of paint and was trying to water it down and then I thought ," hmm, maybe if I just wax it it'll look great!"  And when that didn't work I thought," hmm, maybe I can just use a whole lot of dark wax on it and just make it look old."  Yeah, it's as bad as it sounds.

Distressed Annie Sloan Antique White Chairs

Before of Cherry Dining Room Chair using Annie Sloan-too much CHERRY!

Annie Sloan:  Clear and dark wax, heavy distressing:  luuurrrve it!  I added just a little blue in some places.

Before Distressing and Before Waxing:  This is a color option if you don't care for Annie Sloan Dark Wax or heavy distressing

My first finished chair:  Eli was sooooo sure this photo was all about him-

This shows how the dark wax really ages this chair, which I love, love, love.  But, look!  I love the fabric I found, too!  I'll find the name of the fabric-just leave me a message!

Annie Sloan Paris Grey- I love this grey.  It is perfect on, well...ANYTHING!  Here it is distressed!

Sorry!  These photos are not in order.  But, you can see the before photos of the chairs and both the Annie Sloan Antique White and Paris Grey.  Also, there is a photo before I waxed so you can see what you have to work with before waxing.  Waxing changes everything.  I wanted these to look like they had years of love and use, so the dark wax helped give that feeling, as did heavily distressing them.  You don't have to do that.  Do what YOU love....always.