Kitchen Chair Makeover

As I mentioned ages ago, I got a great deal on some kitchen chairs at the local auction. I only paid £15 for two chairs and a table! I don't know what I'm going to do with the table yet, but for now it's hanging out in my home decor shop. I have big plans for the chairs though. They'll be paired with the table I refinished earlier this year. Since it's a matte gray, I thought it would be fun to have bright, shiny chairs.

Before I could get started on painting the chairs, Dan helped me make sure they were stable enough for every day use. He was so eager to start (or to have me stop nagging him) that I didn't get a chance to take a true "before" picture. Here's Dan using wood glue to tighten up the slats:

Did you notice the color of the chairs? Did you wonder whether this was my bright, shiny color choice? Well, it's not. In person it's a really ugly green. It is really scratched up and parts of the chair were never painted. Instead, I went with purple! 

After the wood glue dried, I moved on to step two of the project: sanding. I lightly sanded the chair so that the primer and paint would adhere better. 

Then I wiped everything down with a microfiber cloth and got out my primer.

Now, full disclosure: I used spray primer and paint for the first chair, but it didn't go so well. I did thin and even coats, but I couldn't get good coverage. I had this same problem when I did the table, so I think I might be done with spray paint for large projects. It worked great on my sofa legs, but it's just too expensive to do five coats of a table and chairs. 

First attempt with spray primer

After three coats of primer

See how it still looks splotchy, even after three coats of primer and four coats of spray paint? 

Still splotchy after four coats

After the spray paint didn't work, I switched to regular primer and paint. I loved the original color I chose, so I had the guys at HomeBase color match the spray paint. I still had to repaint the first chair though because it wasn't 100% the same. Immediately the paint was a much better choice. It was on smoothly and easily.

I used a dark gray primer on the second chair. Look how much better this coverage is:

Dark gray primer

Finally I was able to paint the chair purple! Look how fun this color is!

Love the purple!

Before and After

Final product!

I am so happy with how it turned out. It's so fun and playful. It's really shiny and bright...just how I wanted it to be. 

I still have one more step to go before I'm calling this done though. I'm planning on re-doing the chair seat. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.

Update: I re-did the seats! Check it out here.