I love Pinterest!

It's great for people like me who love to copy other people's brilliant ideas.

Our table has looked like this for years:

 Nice huh?  I actually liked it - it was our crafty table, good and loved.
And these were our chairs...

They were red when I bought them and when I changed my walls to orange years ago I painted them green.  I didn't sand or anything so the green has been peeling and I've been retouching for a long time.  After painting the cabinets I've wanted to paint them black, but I knew I'd have to do it right this time and strip off the old green paint.  I put it off for a while because that's a lot of work.  A couple weeks ago I decided to dive in. 

I started with the chairs.  I bought my paint stripper and started stripping!

 Stripping is MESSY BUSINESS!!  And if you ever feel like doing it you might want to wear long sleeves, not just gloves.  Whenever it touched my arms on accident it burned like fire!  Lots of spreading on the stuff and scraping it off.  Days in fact.  I got 3 done in one day and was exhausted.  then I got sick, ran a race, it rained and rained and then 2 weeks later finished the other 3.

 After all the stripping (hehe) was done I lightly sanded the chairs to get rid of the rough lumps.
That was another mess.

 I wanted to stain the seats darker so I removed them and sanded them down too.

 Next (FINALLY!) I got to do the fun part - paint!  Here they are in their black glory

I sanded the edges a bit...

 Next I stained the seats... I love how its all uneven and worn looking.

 This is after I bumped the can and had to wipe up the stain...  good thing I did the table last!

 All done and beautiful!  Time for my good friend Poly.

 Next came the table.  I was SOOOO excited to do this but not really to sand it down.  I had one day this week that said no rain.  My lovely Kurt carried the table outside for me before work so I had the entire day to do it all.  He even covered it up in case it rained.  No wonder I love him : )

 Half sanded...  it's getting there!  Need a good arm workout?  Use a belt sander.  It works.

 Ok so I got the table tipped over to do 2 of the legs.  I stupidly tried to lift it back up and I heard the legs crack.  I freaked.  There was no way I could lift it by myself.  It was only noon!  I couldn't wait for the kids to get home!  I wandered around a bit looking for neighbors out and about but there was nobody.  What did I do?  I texted our darling missionaries!  How did I know I could text them you ask?  Having them teach lessons at your house has it's perks.  hahaha  They were so nice and rode their bikes right on over.  They tipped it back up for me no problem!  The only payment they'd accept was a fudgesicle.  ; )

 Here's the damage...  not too bad.

 All sanded down.  I forgot how pretty it was before we crafted it all up.

Time for the stencil...

OOOhh it's so pretty!

 It's coming along!

 All done!!

 Sanded it down a bit...

 Now I stained over it using the same stain as the chairs.

Oh my.  Be still my heart.

 Almost done!  Next I painted the legs with the cabinet paint.

 2 coats of poly and all done!
Here's the final product.  Every time I see it I'm so so happy!  It turned out beautifully and I'm so pleased!  Thank you pinterest for leading me to THIS blog for inspiration!