If there is one thing this whole pandemic has shown me it is that our home is a disaster. I say that lovingly because I love our house, but man it is filled with stuff we don’t use and a hodge-podge of furniture that mostly I inherited. One area that I was particularly focused on was the dining room.

For some reason in every house we’ve lived in, the dining room has been the main gathering spot. We work at the dining room table, despite the fact that my husband has an office, and I knew our kids would be homeschooling in there on their at-home days. I had a vision and I really wanted to make it match the feel of our home. However, champagne taste and beer bottle pockets put a big hold on our dining room re-do, so I spent hours on Pinterest trying to find something that was affordable that I liked.

Let me tell you, I love my mom’s dining room set. It’s beautiful cherry wood with comfortable cloth chairs. Both have seen better days but really, it’s a beautiful set. And I love it even more because my mom loved it. It took her years to find all of the pieces she wanted that matched. She never, ever bought a set of furniture, except our bedroom sets, so everything was purchased individually.

Because it reminds me of my mom, I have a strange attachment and just can’t bear to get rid of it yet. But I knew it needed to come out of my dining space. It was so big in there you couldn’t pull the chairs all the way out without hitting either a wall or the living room chair. Since our first floor is an open concept, we were able to make it work for the time being, but it was time to move on. And it really didn’t go with our “coastal farmhouse” feel that we are trying to achieve.

Fun fact about me is that I am addicted to Facebook marketplace. I have bought so much on there through the years, but even when I don’t need to buy something I enjoy looking. For this reason, I always looked at the table and chair sets that were available. I knew I wanted a round table and basic chairs, and it would have to be cheap. My goal was to have an all-white table and blue chairs to give the room some color. Most sets I saw were in the $100 range, and while that is a fantastic price, it just wasn’t what I wanted to spend.

One day, I was browsing while laying with Camden as he went down for his nap, and I saw a $50 set. It looked like it was in great condition. Bonus points for the fact that it was only a few streets away in my town. I popped the car seats out of the car and sent my husband to retrieve it.

It was perfect. A nice Oak table that would fit in our space great and four very basic, older style chairs. While I did re-do the chairs along with the table, I will probably look for new chairs eventually. I would like chairs with a back that is a little higher and we will eventually need 5 instead of 4, so I would need to add an additional chair anyway.

With $40 of paint and sealer, we were ready to go! The best part is that it was all super easy!

Things you need:

• A drop cloth – I use an old flat sheet so that I can just toss when I’m finished.
• A hand sander (or sand paper if you don’t have a sander) This is what I have and it’s perfect!
• Paint – I used Rust-Oleum chalk paint in Linen for the table and Behr chalk paint for the chairs
• Sealer – I used Rust-Oleum sealant specifically for chalk paint. It is much easier than using Polyacrylic to me, but you can use either!
• Paint Brushes – I used the foam ones to avoid brush strokes

Steps:

1. The first step to all of my projects is laying out all of my materials. That might sound stupid, but this way you can be sure you aren’t forgetting anything before starting. There is nothing more frustrating than to be ready to go and realize you need to head back to the store.
2. Lightly sand all of the pieces. I like to do the sanding all at once so then I can put my sander away for the rest of the project. The point of this is to just remove the top layer, so don’t press too hard. This is one of those steps that some people skip. I prefer to do it as I think the paint holds better, but this is your call.
3. Paint! I only needed two coats of the chalk paint for the blue chairs, but I did four coats of the white on the table to get it completely covered. Follow the directors on the paint you use for drying time between coats.
4. I let the paint dry for a full 24 hours before I seal it. It’s also important to check drying time between sealant coats as well. And I let the sealant dry for 24 hours before using the furniture.

How easy is that?!  So, two days and a total of $100 gave me a beautiful “coastal farmhouse” feeling dining room table and chairs! Now our next project is a new chandelier and painting the room!