Sunday, June 30, 2013

Country farmhouse at its best

 Let's see where do I start? It looks like since I'm blogging once a week now, my projects are also posting a week behind. This week I'm posting about the farmhouse harvest table and chairs we refurbished last week. Next week I will share with you the gorgeous dressers I painted in the wonderful colors of Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint. One of these dressers, I'm particularly in love with....you'll just have to wait!  As wonderful as it is to sell these refurbished vintage and antique furniture pieces, the whole process is quite time consuming.
About a  month ago, my husband who is my personal online hound for upcoming estate sales, auctions and must haves on Craigslist, informs me of an estate sale that has not one, but six of these oh so sought after farm house tables.  I knew they wouldn't last long on sale day nor would they be cheap, so we set out early and were the first ones on site.  And there they were, two large and four smaller solid oak work horse tables! One of the two larger ones had some damage on the top, as did one of the smaller ones, so we passed on them and came home with four of the six.  The largest one was 8 feet long and 45" wide and was the first one to get refinished.


Isn't it dreamy....

After stripping and sanding the top down with multiple grits, we stained the top of the table with dark walnut.  My husband is adamant about protecting table tops for durability and insist on applying several coats of polyurethane and sanding between each coat for superior smoothness.  While applying the stain, the beauty of the grain came shining through.  I believe this is quarter sewn oak, and is just stunning with it's unique lines.


After stripping and sanding, this gorgeous
wood grain appears from beneath years of dirt and grim.
I couldn't decide if I wanted to leave the legs as is or paint them in Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint ™ Pure White to match the chairs.  After looking the legs over, I noticed they had some kind of gray outdoor paint in a few spots. That settled it for me, Pure White is was. Believe it or not, I have never used this color on anything in the shop. I usually like to use an off white such as ASCP Old White. Many think because I advertise liking the Shabby Chic style, that I use alot of white, but it's just the case. 



This antique chair got a fresh look with a new
Laura Ashley floral print, very pretty. 
 Now for the chairs. Between our journeys to sales and random people bringing them in for me to buy, we have accumulated some really unique vintage and antique chairs.  I chose 4 set of 2 chairs in  different styles to go with this table.  Two sets of the chairs were upholstered. One in it's original dark green leather with nail head trim and the other was in a outdated dirty fabric.  I left the dark green one as is because it was just fitting for this set. For the other set of chairs, a pretty, fresh floral print by Laura Ashley that went perfect with the whole farmhouse look.  
One of my personal favorites is this antique wood
chair that was often seen in farmhouse kitchens.
 After painting the chairs, I distressed them, some pretty heavily.  This gave them that authentic time worn look of being used in a kitchen where breakfast, lunch and dinner were served daily.


These ladder back chairs were not at all old, but
with a little help from Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint™ and some
sand paper, they now look the part.




This is another favorite, yes, I can have more than one!
The seat is still wearing its original dark green leather with
patina nail head trim. I thought it was so fitting for this set, so left it as is.


Gorgeous leaf filigree on the chair back that distresses perfectly
Waxing chairs in definitely not my favorite things to do. With all of those spindles and legs, it seems like a never ending task. But like all good things that take time, this set was not an exception.  With the help of my girls, my friend Jen and of course my husband, we were able to refurbish this table and chairs into what it is today. 

For the table decor, I used antique blue
Ball Jars and filled them with wild flowers.
Burlap and ironstone complete this farm fresh look!
My husband and I brought it to the store on a Tuesday night.  We had to take it apart of course because of its weight.  Despite doing this, it was still extremely heavy, leaving me with the conclusion that it was time for me to hit the weights if I want to keep doing this kind of work!  With all of the hard work that went into this beautiful set, it was well worth it and found a home in just a few short days of being on display!

Another week has gone and with that another happy family enjoying treasures from yesteryear.  I hope you all a very happy 4th of July week!

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