Hi friends! I'm SO excited today; not only is there a beautiful, brand-new transformation to show you, but I'm also overwhelmed to share that Apartment Therapy featured our Home Tour yesterday! What a humbling and exciting experience. Here is the link on their site if you're interested! The kids were excited about two things in-particular: seeing their beds and our beta fish, Gill. :)

So, I've been working like a mad woman to have this 5-piece custom ordered dining set finished in a timely fashion. It was brought over by a friend who has two young children; I don't know about you, but I would not be super interested in having to eat on the floor with my toddlers while my dining set was MIA. Getting them to sit still IN SEATS is tough enough! I definitely worked some odder-than-usual hours to get this set finished and back to it's young and busy home!

Here is the tired, worn-out set BEFORE:

The first order of business, as always with a custom order, was discussing my friend's style. In order to determine the best direction to go with her dining set, I really needed to get a feel of her unique home decorating style. Along with some beautiful pictures she sent from around her home, the first three words she used to describe her style were "casual", "cottage", and "country". BINGO! I knew that we needed to use Chateau Grey, by Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, and Old White, also by ASCP. Chateau Grey can really fool you if you haven't seen a sample of it before cracking open the can. It's not what one would call a grey, but rather a soft, natural sage green. A little bit of green with a little bit of white, and some natural wood mixed in = a perfect dining set combination for my casual, cottage, country friend!

AFTER

Along with painting and gently distressing the chairs and table base, I also removed the old finish on the table, (accomplished by 60 grit sandpaper and an electric sander), and re-stained and re-sealed the table top. No more scratches or worn patches! (Important note: I stained this table top in Minwax Early American. After editing the photos to help the color of the chairs come through, the table top looks very red. It's absolutely NOT a red wood stain, but a natural, saturated oak color).