Ikea Children's Table and Chair Re-Do

So....hooray!...I did a craft project...thingy. :)

I like "crafts" but I don't often do them...mostly because I have the patience level of a fly (though I don't actually know what their patience level is - does anyone?).

However, I bought a little Ikea children's table and chair set at a yard sale a few years back and over the years it has gotten BEAT UP. I believe that I bought it for $15 at the time...I have no idea what they go for new. I probably got taken. ;) The set came with a table and 2 chairs and at the time, that was fine because I only had two kids BUT often with the passing of time, along come changes with it...and we added a peanut to our family of 4. Now we need 3 chairs so...a couple of weekends ago, I found the perfect chair to go with my set...and it was only $1!

Here is the complete set pre-project:

What you probably can't see are the stickers, nail polish, permanent marker and so on that have found their way, according to my children, "mysteriously" onto every surface of the set. Also, you may notice that I started painting the chair on the far right; that was before I realized that I should really sand the set BEFORE I try to paint it. Well...eh hem...remember that whole patience of a fly thing? Yeah, that was sooo not happening. So, instead, I went out and purchased a bottle of this stuff:

AKA Liquid Sandpaper (a HUGE thank you to Layla Palmer from The Lettered Cottage for blogging about it a while back)

This was easy to use and didn't take long to dry. Made the painting process go a lot more smoothly. However, the wiping on is STILL a semi-tedious process. :(

I should tell you that the inspiration for this project came from a Pottery Barn Kids trend that I have had my eye on. My table and chairs needed help and at the risk of doing something that looked monotonous, I chose to go with the multi-colored look like those of my beloved PB.

Without further adieu, let's check it out...

Here is a look at my first coat...

Notice how streaky the first coat was? I was EXTREMELY nervous!

This chair was the biggest pain in the tooter - the black permanent marker was a royal PIT (pain in tooter) to cover. In fact, it's STILL not perfect but hello...yeah, that patience...well, you know.

I don't know if you can tell on this one, but it took a few coats to cover up those ball stencils. Grrrrr.

Well anyway...they are finished...and definitely not perfect. I will not be making it as some world-renowned graffiti artist anytime too soon...there are drips galore...but I actually think that the table and chairs turned out kinda cute.

Still not sure exactly where it's permanent home is going to be. Right now, it's taking up residence in our living room and this is probably where it will get used most often. I thought the colors kinda went well.

Here's a look further back - please don't mind the mess...I am pooped today - ran ran ran around and all I feel like doing now is...well, not much.

So, that's that! It was a fun little project and it is definitely enjoyable to see something go from this:


to this:


Here is the spray paint, I used:

For the table:


For the green chair:


For the red chair:


And finally, for the cream chair (if you can't read it, the color is Sweet Cream):


Hope that you guys enjoyed this post! :) I'm thinking of another craft project having to do with that potpourri netting I blogged about a few days ago...be looking for that post next year (just kidding - maybe more like a month or so) ;)

Have a great night everyone!
XO,


P.S. I'd like to send out a BIG THANK YOU to the Money Saving Mom for letting me in on the little giveaway that Origins had going on today - I'm siked about my new FREE FULL SIZE Origins Checks and Balances cleanser! :)