delicious dining.

I like to eat. Like really like to eat. It's a bit unfortunate how much I like to eat. To that end, it was so important to me to make our dining room deliciously delightful. One component of my goal to create a delightful dining room was our campaign hutch that got a little facelift.

One of my other favorite pieces of our dining room was this Arcadia table that we picked up at World Market several months ago. We loved several aspects of this table: I was truly, madly, deeply passionate about the fabulously chunky legs on the table while Mr. Spouse was over the moon about the extension leaves that added on a good three feet to the table.

**Side note regarding the extension leaves: I eat with my elbows at 90 degree angles (much better for aggressive cutting and scarfing techniques). Therefore, by adding on three feet to the table, Mr. Spouse is in far less danger of falling victim to my flailing elbows.

We had also purchased an indoor/outdoor rug that featured a chocolate brown, Moroccan, trellis pattern  prior to the move. I loved the modern feel of the rug, but I also was ga-ga over the fact that it was indoor/outdoor as it would be laughably easy to clean and durable.

But let's re-cap: we have a smoky gray campaign hutch, a chocolate brown table, and a chocolate brown rug. That's a whole lot of smoky and chocolate for one space. So when it came to the chairs, I knew I was going to have to use the chairs to brighten up the space.

Several months ago, I found these dining chairs at a local consignment shop in desperate need of my loving touch:

I know, I know, I probably should have left them just the way they were and placed them in my delicious dining room, right? But oh, the potential they had!

To begin their journey to fabulosity, I flipped the chairs over and found the screws that were holding the cushions onto the wood frame:

I then unscrewed each of those screws to separate the cushion from the frame:

Once the cushions were off, I lightly sanded each chair, being sure to smooth down any deep scratches or dings. I then used TSP Heavy Duty Cleaner to give me a nice, clean surface to paint:

Once the chairs were sanded and cleaned, they were ready to paint. That's where things got interesting, but fun. I initially thought that I would be spray painting the chairs - I thought that this would give me the cleanest look and be the easiest in terms of application. But after searching every home improvement store in the land, I couldn't find the right color for my chairs. I really wanted to find a light, smoky blue, but all of the blues I could find were either too "baby" or too "slate". That's when I remembered that my father-in-law painted their kitchen cabinets by himself using this puppy:

That's right: the MAGNUM SPRAY PAINTER (to be read in your deepest, most guttural voice). I mean, with the word MAGNUM in it, how could it be bad?! This spray painter would allow me to do a couple of things: I could have a wider variety of paints to choose from, as I could use any indoor paint with this MAGNUM spray painter. I would also still achieve the smooth, glossy finish and easy application I would have gotten with a can of spray paint, but still with a color that I actually really loved.

With my new freedom to choose any paint I could find, I headed to Home Depot where I found this perfectly perfect light, blue gray, fittingly named "Liberty Gray". God Bless America.

I picked up one gallon of Zinnser primer and two gallons of "Liberty Gray" as I was planning on applying one coat of primer to my eight chairs and two coats of the color.

After laying out my tarp, hooking up the MAGNUM spray painter...

...and applying a very fine, even coat of primer, the chairs were looking smashing:

The primer went on pretty well, but was a bit thicker in some places than others. Further, the primer dried a bit roughly in some areas of the chairs. So after letting the primer dry for several hours, I then very very lightly sanded the chairs just to smooth out any inconsistencies and to have a nice, even finish.

After sanding the primer, I moved to working on applying my first set of Liberty Gray. The wonderful thing about the MAGNUM spray painter is that the paint does come out in an extremely fine mist. I therefore just used an even sweeping motion to insure that the paint went on smoothly and evenly on all surfaces of the chairs.

Once the first coat dried, I did sand again, but only in those spots that either had drip marks or uneven areas. Finally, it was time for the final coat of the Liberty Gray!

Be still my America-loving heart. Liberty Gray, you didn't let me down!

When it came to choosing a fabric for the seat cushions, I wanted another light color, but something neutral since the blue of the chairs was a bit of a statement. Therefore, I chose a simple khaki fabric and after re-covering and screwing the cushions back onto the frame, the dining room chairs were considered done and done!

I love how they brighten up all of our darker pieces:

I love how the khaki of the seat cushions brings out the trellis pattern on our rug:

So now that all is said and done, we have a deliciously delightful dining room!

Have y'all ever painted dining chairs? How did it go? Are you pleased with the results?