Painted table

Like a lot of parents with young children, I bought the £17 Ikea table and chairs for my children. It's wooden and cheap, so I was happy for the children to draw on it to their hearts' content and leave all the other furniture and walls alone. It got to a point where I was a a bit embarrassed by the state of it, and it was relegated to under the stairs until I could clean it up.

Today was the day that the poor little table was given a new lease of life. I finally managed to paint it and it looks so much better! I took it apart and used an ivory spray enamel paint to cover the scratched and chipped top. I used 3 coats of red acrylic paint on the legs and sides, then put it all back together again. Now to start on the chairs.

Painted chair

We had some new wardrobes fitted in our bedroom a few weeks ago, and they are dark red gloss - I am in love with both the look of them and the storage they provide. I wanted to make the rest of the room really minimal, and so all we have in the room is a bed, bedside tables and a big leaner mirror. As there is nothing else in the room that is red, I thought I'd better rectify the situation.

We have a hardwood chair that has been in my husband's family for a few generations, and it has never had a proper home in our house. It bravely put itself forward as my first ever piece of painted furniture. I had been talking to our decorator (yes, I have given up on thinking I can decorate - I can't, I'm too messy and my arms ache too quickly) and he recommended this undercoat for furniture painting. So I bought a tin and 2 coats later, here is the first stage of the chair painting.


I had some paint mixed to match the colour of the wardrobes and painted 4 coats onto the chair to give it a whole new lease of life: