ELIZABETH JOAN DESIGNS

Exactly 1 year and 18 days ago, I shared my Dining Chair Update with you. We have absolutely loved having our chairs white, but these chairs have really taken a beating with daily usage. Today I am revisiting the kitchen seating and showing you the little changes that we made that will hopefully make our lives a little easier and help anyone out there that may decide to paint their furniture too.

Oh, look at these cute, adorable faces! Don’t let them fool you. They can really do some serious damage to painted furniture. I am sure my husband and I aren’t exactly gentle to our dining room chairs, but we certainly don’t pick off the paint during meal time.

After one year of use, this is what the seats looked like. (Trust me, this one wasn’t even the worst of them!)

To restore the beauty of the pure white chairs, I started by sanding down the peeling paint with my mouse sander.

Next, the seats each received a coat of primer and two coats of white paint.

Finally, I applied three coats of Minwax Polycrylic. This is the step I feel I really should have added last time, but completely skipped.

Although these chairs look like they did when I finished them last time, I am hoping the additional layers of protection will deter little fingers from picking away at the paint and make them easier to clean. A momma can always dream, right?

Have you ever painted a dining chair that gets regular daily use? If so, did you add type of finish to your work? Leave us a comment, we would love to hear about any painted furniture experiences you’ve had and how you keep your furniture looking new.

I am here today to tell you the story of my husband’s childhood dresser makeovers.That’s right, two times this dresser has received new looks. This furniture piece has moved to many apartments, across the country and back again, and into our home together. We decided that this storage item would make a great addition to our son’s bedroom. The only problem was that it didn’t match our decor plans for the room. So, me being the DIYer I am, I gave it a well deserved makeover.

From Wood to White:
The dresser started out with a dark wood stain. It just didn’t fit into the visual of our baby boy’s nursery of blue and white.

(Please excuse the bad photography here. This was before I took the Shoot Fly Shoot Photography class. FYI: This class really is amazing!)

So, I primed it and gave it several coats of white paint. I also updated the chunky hardware to these basic silver pulls.

I absolutely loved this dresser white. So clean looking.

But as any DIYer can tell you, sometimes you just need to change things up.

From White to Gray:

As our son is getting older, he has been wanting a “big boy” room. (This is the vintage airplane themed room I have been working on.) Our color scheme has changed again and it was time to repaint the dresser.

I mixed up some of my own gray-blue chalkboard paint and got to work.

After two coats, it had a new look. We doodled on it with some chalk then wiped our drawings away.The chalkboard paint gives it an old kinda beat up look.

For this makeover, I spray painted the hardware with Rust-Oleum Oil Rubbed Bronze Paint and Primer.

It amazes me that one piece can have so many different looks.

We would love to hear your thoughts! Are you a fan of the clean white? The vintage gray? Or maybe you prefer the original stain. Leave us a comment and let us know!