Updated: Dining Room

Moving a lot can take a lot out on your furniture, and since we move every couple of years I felt like we were constantly buying new furniture. This last move our dining room china cabinet took a dive into the rocks, causing scratches and dents everywhere. We considered replacing the expensive set, but decided that this time I would try updating the furniture. We figured the worse that would happen would be that, I would destroy our set and we would have to buy new, which we were ready to do anyway.

Here is a BEFORE Picture:

I started with the chairs. I replaced the fabric on the chairs about 2 years ago. They used to have a velvet look, which was the perfect magnet for dog hair, dust and stains…not what you want next to your table! I used the fabric as inspiration for the colors of paint I would use, I settled on a brownish grey, ocean blue, and olive green.

Since the chairs in our dining room had a solid decorative piece on the back, I figured it would be the perfect place for a pop of color. 4 chairs have yellow fabric and 2 have a multi color fabric. The 4 chairs would get the blue pop of color, where the other 2 would get the green. When you are ready to start painting the chairs I highly recommend taking the seat cushion off. Anytime I have to take something apart, I always put the screws in a plastic dish, that way I don’t lose any!

I used leftover foam pieces from a previous project to put the legs of the chairs on, to make sure I didn’t get paint everywhere. Chalk paint can get expensive, so I decided to go with regular wall paint in a flat finish. I got the same look without the extra price! My chairs took two coats of paint per chair in each color. I started the chairs during hockey season, it was great to be able to watch the game and paint at the same time!

Next came the table…I wanted a wooden slat look to the table. Since our table was already a bazillion pounds I had to come up with a way to get the wooden slat look without the extra weight. After research and a few hours walking around our local home improvement store I came up with the perfect way to get the wood slat look…a piece of wood looking wall paneling! So to update the dining room table, we started with removing the top and painting the bottom legs with the blue paint. Then painting the frame of the table with the brownish grey color. To add the wall paneling to the table, all we did was flip the table top over onto the wood, trace the shape of the table, and cut along our traced lines with a jigsaw. To attach the paneling to the table, we used a spray adhesive. The table was completed in just 3 hours! I say “we” a lot when it comes to the table, because I needed help with a lot of the table. It wasn’t a one person job to take it apart, or move it. Also my husband worked the jigsaw, since I am an accident waiting to happen I avoid power saws as much as possible.

Finally it was time to tackle the large and heavy china cabinet. Right before I was ready to update the cabinet we invested in a paint sprayer…it has already paid for itself! To do the china cabinet I had to remove all the doors and drawers and tape off the mirror. Then spray away! I learned one very valuable lesson…if you don’t mix the water you use to thin the paint enough, you get crazy streaks (see picture below). To fix this problem, just use an old towel, wipe off the paint, and start over. To add the pops of color to the china cabinet, I added the olive green color to the drawer faces, inside the areas with the glass doors, and the wine rack! Painting takes time, but with the sprayer I was finished with the entire china cabinet in just a day!

When you want to update an entire room like a dining room, it is important to not only take your time, but also be ready for the fact that you may not be able to use that room for a few days or weeks. I worked piece by piece that way we would still be able to have dinner at the table!

The Final Result: Before & After