Tackle It Tuesday: Not Quite Done Yet

Although my tackle isn't completely done, I thought I would share with you my work in progress.





About 7 years ago, I was teaching piano to a family who was getting rid of several pieces of very high quality furniture. I bartered two months of piano for the items. The items were an oak dining room set complete with four chairs and leaf and also a beautiful hutch with display cabinet.


In the same seven years, we have managed to ruin the finish of the table and chairs, due to two young boys growing up, with spills, scrapes, etc. Because I was noticing the wood in the table also peeling, I was starting to worry about the sanitary health of the table as well.

So last Fall, when Steve was making overtime for a little while, we purchased a new table with five matching chairs (4 for the table and one for the computer desk). They were beautiful and we loved them.



Until we discovered that the new chairs were quite a bit less sturdy than our old ones and so far two of them have become so loose that they are virtually unable to be used.

Last weekend, we had some friends from our old church over for dinner, requiring us to bring up the old chairs in order to have enough seating for nine people. Both Steve and I noticed how nice it was to sit in the old chairs, because they were so steady.

But they looked horrible with the new table.


So while pondering this dilemma, I wondered if it would be possible to paint (yup, here we go again) the oak chairs black. So I went to Home Depot and started asking the employees about what they thought. They all agreed it was a bad idea, and although they suggested it, they also thought that sanding down the chairs and restaining them would be difficult too, since it would be so hard to match woods.

The old chairs were covered with nasty stains and different colors of paint from standing on them during various painting projects (which I've learned from and no longer use those chairs). It has been kind of fun to sand off all the nastiness and get a fresh start.







The staining has actually been pretty easy, although the fumes in the house (since there are sub zero temps outside) have become unbearable for us (especially Steve) at times and I only have two out of four chairs done.

And yeah, we're all getting tired of half of the kitchen being covered by Momma's Workshop. It's just too cold in the basement to do this project down there right now.




Here's a comparison of the new one (left) and the old one (right).




And here they are with the computer table. The color matched pretty well, I think.

Please disregard the mess ON the computer table. Whenever I am in the middle of one of my projects, all other areas of the house tend to get ignored...another reason that this project feels like it's gone on too long






And here are the two chars that are done at the table. A pretty good match I think. One challenge is that they are still really rough feeling. I got some spray on enamel but they are still really rough so if you have any suggestions of coating to smooth them out, I'm all ears.

(the picture makes them look a little more orangy than in real life)






I am pretty excited to have tackled this project, even though it's not quite done yet. I can;t believe how much sturdier these chairs are I am also VERY anxious for it to be over so our house can smell normal again and Aaron is very anxious to have his puzzle table back in the kitchen too.








So here's my half-tackle of the week. Hopefully, I will be able to finish it and start on the carpet in the bedroom. No rest for the weary. Have a good Tuesday.