Annie Sloan Chair Class

A few months ago, I took a painting class at Restoration Emporium.  They taught us how to paint a chair using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  Annie Sloan makes it SO easy! If you haven't tried it yet, you should.  This was my chair. I painted it green to match my kitchen. I am hoping to eventually paint a few other chairs and have the mis-matched farm house look.

Before & After

With my farmhouse table

Farmhouse Table: Part 2

You may remember Farmhouse Table: Part 1 from way back in NOVEMBER! I finally got around to putting the final coat of poly on it! I used Minwax Fast Drying Polyurethane in the clear satin. I also bought a nice natural bristle brush. Before I started I used a tack cloth to make sure there was nothing stuck on the table. I also stained a few more spots that needed it. Make sure you let the stain dry!

                                    

table before poly

Coat 1 still wet! 

After coat 1 

I put 2 coats on. I did not sand in between. I attempted it, in a small area, but it didn't look good, so I just let it be! When I was painting it on, I went all the way down the table and went back over thick places a few times. 

It is so much easier to wipe down now, and I don't have to worry about staining or warping it.

Sorry for the millions of photos, I was trying to get all angles! :) 

                                                

Next up, figuring out the chairs!!!

Farmhouse Table- Part 1

When Erica moved out, I was left kitchen table-less.  I needed a new table, but didn't want to spend $1,000 on a table at Pottery Barn. I wanted a farmhouse table.  I decided I was going to build it.  I looked online and found a bunch of designs that I liked. I found a few that we would need to build from scratch. I also found a few that used an old table and just built the top.  I was at Salvation Army looking for a lamp, and found this table.  It was $70 and had 4 chairs.  I called Kent, sent him a text of the table, and he said yes. Do it. It would save us a lot of time. So I had my friend Megan come help me load up the table and chairs.  The table fit perfectly in my car!

 I unscrewed the top and was left with this.  So we measured and planned, and went to Lowe's to buy wood.  We "made the table" in the store and made sure we had flat boards that would fit well together and look nice.

 The corners were a little unstable, so we used some scrap wood and made the corner supports.

We built some supports for across the table.  We screwed them in every 12 inches.

 Matt helped me cut the boards to my measurements.  Then it was finally time to screw them in! We started in the middle. We screwed them in using self drilling screws and screwed them into each support.

 We screwed some of them from the bottom, with the table upside down to make it easier to see!

Then it was time to plane and sand.  We were a little nervous about getting the table flat and smooth. But this tool did some magical numbers! I found it in my parent's basement. It is old, but it did the job!

We sanded and sanded some more.  However, the end boards didn't line up perfectly.  We needed to even it out so that the end boards would fit nicely.

 We lined up a board and clamped it. Then sawed off the edges to make it line up perfectly.

We added the final boards on. They were a little wobbly, so we used the nail gun to secure these boards.  We sanded and used the planer again.  FINALLY it was ready to stain!! I used some tacky cloth and the leaf blower to blow all of the little sawdust off.