#344...candy's chair set

My Mom's friend Candy asked me to makeover some old office chairs for her. Here are a few before shots of the chairs and a side table that came with them. They looked straight out of a Dr.'s office waiting room.

Candy picked the fabric fabric for her chairs, and left it to me to decide what to do with the wood sides, which were in marginal shape. Here is the after........

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I decided to paint the chairs in Benjamin Moore's sea haze, which is a soft gray, giving them a more modern look. I really love how it looks with the cream and black fabric. I painted the chairs using a satin finish oil-based enamel. For the table that came with the chairs, I decided to make it coordinate with the chairs, but not match them exactly to take away some of the office waiting room feel of the coordinated set. Here is another before of the table. 

...and here is the after

I cleaned the wood sides with orange oil and painted the top in a stripe pattern. To create the stripe, I painted the top in the sea haze color and then used tape to create the asymmetrical stripes. Next, I painted the cream color over the stripes and pulled the tape off. It took a few coats of the cream, and I usually rip the tape off while the paint is wet each coat, let it dry, and then re-tape over the stripes before adding another coat of the top color. If you leave the tape on and let the top color dry, you run the risk of pulling off the paint when taking the tape off. It is easier just to re-tape the pattern for each new coat of paint.

I really like how this set turned out, although if it were mine, I think I'd break up the table and chairs. The table is large and boxy in scale for the size of the chairs, and I think it would work well as a small coffee table, sofa end table, or even bedside table. I like the chairs paired together and think I would put a small round table like this or this between them as a grouping.