DIY Table: Spraypainting

So remember that table & chair set I showed you Monday? Well, let's start at the beginning, shall we? First things first, I had to figure out how in the world I was going to pick up a table and six chairs. After emailing back and forth with the seller, we realized that the white van currently in my parents' possession would fit the table with room to spare. Flip the table over and rest the chairs on it, perfect!

Once back at my parents, it was time to clean up the chairs. First things first we sanded them down. There was a bit of a sheen to the chairs so we weren't sure what the finish was. After a quick wash down,  we sanded first with a medium grit, then fine grit.

In the picture below on the left, you can see the broken chair caning that was left in the chair. This stuff was gnarly and sharp. On Day 1, I didn't think we'd actually recane the chairs. So instead we took a utility knife to the broken pieces and then used caulking to fill the holes. (This was a VERY bad idea when we then changed our minds and wanted to recane the chairs....)

 Once cleaned up, it was time to prime and spray paint!

My original idea was to use a deep plum on these chairs. I envisioned it looking so rich next to an off-white bench. But we couldn't find the right purple for my vision. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that something lighter would look much better against our gorgeous cherry floors. So I let my mom talk me into a light aqua instead. And I am SO glad she did! Blue Ocean Breeze to be exact.

DIY rookie mistake...not buying enough spray paint! Oh my....we went through a lot of spray paint. I was trying SO hard to do light even layers that I probably sprayed a little too far away. Paired with the wind that day, I'm pretty sure half of each can ended up on the lawn, woods, in the air. Oh, and apparently we chose a very popular color! Took us 3 different Michaels stores (and 4 different trips) to get enough spray paint.

But once we saw the spray painted caning (one chair had the caning intact), we knew it had to be. And I ordered the caning supplies online that night.