French Dining Room Table and Chair Set

Hot off the press, or should I say “fresh out of the workshop” is this beautiful French dining room table and chair set!  Our redesign gives it a cool eclectic style all of it’s own.  I like that!  (The seats weren’t attached yet in this picture, but I took it anyway ’cause I was running out of good light.)

This set was restored using a lot of old fashioned elbow grease, restoration skills and patience.  This is what we started out with.

One of the chairs was beyond repair, so we kicked around ideas until we came up with a way to seat six people with five chairs.  Our solution was to build a bench using the fifth chair.  That gives us seating for six and the bench has the same legs as the chairs so everybody’s happy.

In my mind, all we had to do was chop off the top, cut a new seat, take out the cross bars and replace them with wider ones.  What’s so hard about that?  Right?  Well, we all know it’s always harder than we think.

That’s where big sister’s come in handy.  I grabbed a tutorial on how to build a bench, handed it to Cathy and wished her luck as I went up to take a nap.  I’m not kidding!   Cath packed up what she needed and went home to do her magic.  Actually I think Carter or Ty stopped by, ‘cause that carpentry work is a little too impressive for an amateur.  Who was it Cath?  Huh?  Huh?  Who ya hiding over there?

I painted the chairs and bench in Annie Sloan’s Old White, accented in French Linen.  Cath, reupholstered the seats in some of dad’s leftover fabric from his upholstery workshop  – thanx dad!

The top of the table has a beautiful wood inlay veneer, but the top coat was scratched up quite a bit.  I planned to refinish it, but couldn’t cut through that diamond coat.  That’s what I’m calling it, after two strippers and sanded like a mad woman couldn’t cut through it.   

I ended up painting the top with Annie Sloan’s French Linen.  I layered the base and legs in several other colors to really play up that French look.  In this picture, the legs haven’t been waxed yet, the top has.  You can see how rich the paint becomes once waxed.

Sadly, this is the only picture I have of it all together.  It was so cold the day we took it to the bank, I forgot to shoot a picture of the table – ugh!  This picture is taken in the lobby of Macatawa Bank in Byron Center.  They’re featuring our furniture the month of December, and since this set would take up a lot of floor space at the store, we decided to display it in our hometown instead. 

I priced this set insanely low for a couple of reasons a). I don’t want to store it and b). we really need the money right now with all the failure we’ve endured with our vehicles, appliances and electronics the past couple months.

The Table, four chairs and the bench only $550!  I know, I’m crazy.  It’s such a cool set; just check out those legs!!  Hopefully people coming into the bank will not only notice the dining set, but will also realize what a steal it is.

We are also offering to sell the table separate from the chairs.  If you’re interested in doing that, we’re offering the table only for $300 and the four chairs & bench for $300, so you get a little break if you buy it all together.

Well… You likey?  Please leave a comment or like my Facebook page to let me know what’cha think:)