Shiny happy table

I've already covered the sanding and staining of the new-to-me dining table, but I never really told you the final chapter.  When I had the table all stained and ready, I had to make a decision about what to finish it with. 

I didn't want to use poly, because it's not the best top coat for furniture.  It's better to choose a lacquer or varnish.  Poly is thick and is easily scratched, while lacquers are super thin and enhance the wood grain instead of covering it up.  Plus, Restor-A-Finish is meant for lacquered finishes!  I was initially going to go with this product:

But I read that the brushing lacquer dries so fast it is nearly impossible to get it on without brush marks.  With that knowledge, I decided to go with these instead:

Did you know it's best to use gloss for the first coat of poly or lacquer when you are covering stained wood?  The reason is that semi-gloss and satin finishes contain dulling agents to make them less shiny, and if all the coats contain these dulling agents, your wood grain can look muddy.  I bought two cans of gloss and one of semi, my preferred final finish.   This is after a couple coats of the gloss spray:

I did about 5 coats of gloss, using up the two cans entirely.  Then topped it with 2 coats of semi-gloss.  I was loving how the stripey wood grain is not at all obscured by the fine mist of the lacquer.  The mist is so fine that the table is dry after about 30 seconds! 

While I love this spray, there is one thing they don't mention on the can....from one side to the other, the overspray on the most recently-done side will settle on the completed side, creating a 'haze.'  I kept thinking it was a problem with my spraying, so I'd go over and over it before I finally took a swipe at the haze with my sleeve, and it was perfectly shiny underneath the overspray!  Turns out this stuff is almost foolproof.  

After I was done with the lacquer, we brought the table inside and I primed and painted the base.  I always do my staining and sealing before painting, because wet paint is a lot easier to wipe off cured lacquer or poly than bare wood, right?

Did you happen to notice the swirls on the bottom of the legs before?  I hated them.  I used some stainable wood filler to spackle right over them.  Oh, yes I did!  My retired neighbor thought I was nuts, but I showed him. 

A little sanding and I was ready to prime and paint right over that little detail. 

In other news, do you think the West Elm zig zag rug would be 'pattern overload' in here?  I dragged our runner downstairs to test it out. 

I think it may just be crazy enough to work!  But the jury is still out.....

And here is the cost for the table -
Table - free from future mother-in-law
3 cans spray lacquer (purchased at Farm & Fleet): $16
Stain - already had
Wood filler - already had
Paint - covered in 'chair' post
=
$16 total!

Recovering my Craigslist chairs

This is the best I can do.  Some fuzzy, sparse, and possibly boring pictures of how these:

came to look like this:

Besides the obvious painting that I covered here, the recovering was the most tedious portion of this makeover.  The existing batting on the chairs was a bit too small, so me and my mom waited about ten hours at Joann fabrics for some new stuff to be cut.  I believe it was 8oz thickness.  Dear Joann - remove about 50% of your hideous fabrics to make room for more cutting counters, mkay?   We used the old yucky batting as a guide, cutting the new stuff slightly bigger - about 1/2 inch to 1 inch all around.

Using the chair seat as a guide, we trimmed any extra batting so it perfectly covered the foam without overlapping too much.  

After the batting was cut, we again used the chair seat as a guide to cut out the fabric.  Here we are checking to make sure the size is right, and that the pattern would be the same on each chair.  While it's not exact, we got pretty close - there are three full diamonds up the middle of each chair.   

We started with about two or three staples on each side of the chair, first attaching one side, then moving to the opposite one.  Pulling it tight was key!   Once the fabric was semi-attached, we cut the excess off to make the corners easier.    

The corners were totally donkey.  My mom was much better at it than me, so she can take the credit for all of them.  Obviously, this photo was taken before we cut the extra fabric off....we learned our lesson after this one!

We tried to follow a specific process for each corner, but ended up just doing whatever laid right and looked good from the top.  If you are under my chairs for some reason, well, the upholstery on my chairs is probably the least of your concerns.  Reattaching the seats was a breeze, and here is what it looks like all finished from the bottom:

I used an electric stapler with 3/8 inch staples.  It was pretty fun stapling, however I have one tip....see how far your seat overhangs the chair frame before you start.  On the front of some chairs, you can see my staples (only from the bottom, of course) because the overhang was so great.  Oh, well! 

The cost breakdown -

6 chairs from CL: $100
fabric: $50 - and there will be two yards left over

stapler: $26

staples: $3

batting: $6 with lots left over

spray adhesive: $5

Satin Impervo: $16

primer: $5

new screws for reattaching seats: $3

=

$214 total for 6 new chairs (I haven't done the two armchairs yet!)  Not bad, eh?

It's freakin cold!

Which is why we had to put 22 more rolls of insulation into our attic.  We didn't have that much up there to begin with. 

So we dragged it all up there and got busy covering all that empty flooring. 

This is the east side of the house you're looking at.  And here is the other side that has all our crap stored in it....do you like my mini Case pedal tractor? 

Most of the insulation up here already was either an old rolled-up kind, or even older blown-in stuff - so anything we added was going to be an improvement.  We made sure to overlap the old pink stuff. 

To put the cherry on top, I sprang for some radiant barrier foil to lay on top of the insulation.  It is supposed to create an extra layer of protection against heat and cold when added to fiberglass insulation. 

It is so easy to lay it down, no special tools needed - except a pole or broom to help push the edges down.  There is supposed to be an inch or two in between the insulation and the foil, without that gap the barrier won't work.  Sounds good to me!

So easy! 

It looks like a big pan of leftovers up here now.    

Even with all this, we still don't have the 'recommended' R value for WI.  That is somewhere around 50-60.  I estimate we have about 40 up here, but I'm not about to add more now.  Ah, things you wish you knew before a project starts!

Now all our stuff lives just to the right of the attic ladder where no bedrooms are.  Who needs insulation above a hallway, right?

The foil was $130 and the insulation rolls were just $88 after a mail-in rebate.  Now, if only I had a foolproof way to tell if it was helping! 

A place to eat

Our dining room is finally functional again.  On November 4th a nice couple came to pick up our Ikea set that I've had for the last 7 years:

It has been sorely missed, we eat every meal at home together at the dining room table.  I'm happy to say it has finally been replaced by the newly-refinished table and chairs.  Thank goodness, no more standing around the kitchen counters with our plates!

I love the way the set turned out!

I will post more about the table and chair 'redo' process this week, I'm just so happy to have it done.  I do still have the two arm chairs to sand, prime, paint and recover (blech) and the french doors have to be painted, and the rug is not doing it for me anymore, but those will all have to wait a bit.  Haven't they come a long way from this?

More details on how I did it to come!

Sorry for the weird shadows - we get next to no natural light in here, so I usually just take pics at night with the chandy on.  Oh, to have a flash I can bounce off the ceiling!  If only Christmas was coming up and someone had no idea what to get me!  Heh.

Today I'm thankful for...

Insulation (more on this later)

Thrift store finds!

(This dresser was $20!!! And I have the missing brass plates! Oh happy day!!!)

My cats that make me smile.  Except when then puke on my rugs or poop alot. 

Icky fluorescent lights that come off super easy

My man (and let's just go ahead and throw 'good hair days' in there as well)

My parents

My little brother and his gorgeous girlfriend

I am also thankful for the mounds of food my mom is preparing right now.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I got chairs

Since the chairs that came with our free pedestal table were not my style, I left them with my mother-in-law and started hunting for a great set of chairs on Craigslist.  After a few dead ends, I finally found my new chairs!  Here is the pic from craigslist:

This dining set had two arm chairs and four side chairs.  Of course, the laminate-topped table was not needed, so I posted it on CL for free.  Talk about a lot of responses!  Anyhow, I got the Queen Anne style chairs outside for a quick spray with some Cover Stain primer - after sanding with 220, of course. 

The seats definitely had to be recovered.  The fabric was pretty gross.

First I removed the seats, and numbered the seat and the chair (it's really dark in the picture)so I knew which ones went where.  Thank goodness I'm not a total idiot, or putting the seats back on would've been hell!

By the time I actually got the primer sprayed on, it was dark out.  And so cold the primer was running and sagging like crazy.  Maybe I am an idiot after all.

I chose to use BM Satin Impervo in Cloud White for the finish coat.   

This paint looks great when dry, but it's kind of hard to work with.  Mainly, it dries super fast during application.  I found myself catching drips just a minute after the fact, and they were already setting up.  Work fast with this paint!

Painting these chairs by hand was a painful experience.  All those curves were mocking me and my paintbrush.  But, the final product was very nice.  I'm very happy with the sheen, the hard finish and the color.  Here they are around an imaginary table, having a chair conference.  I ended up doing three coats just to be sure everything was covered.

The arm chairs are a pain in my ass because one arm is detached, with the screw broken off inside the chair back.  I have no idea how to get it reattached, so I'm concentrating on these four for now.  I also need to figure out how to recover the chair seats with this fabulous 'Key West' fabric in chocolate. 

  

I'm having my mom help me because somehow I doubt Shaun will be a good helper.  I'm envisioning crooked patterns, general whining and other nonsense!

It is going to look great, don't you think?