A Mid-Century Mod Table Re-Do

10/17/2016

So, I've finally nailed down my style aesthetic and that is mid-century modern with a twist. Now that we're in a new house I have about 5 million ideas and things I want to change but that costs money. Plus, I want the house to feel like the decor naturally occurred and not like I bought everything to match at one store. Because of that and the fact that mid-century mod is kind of expensive but can also be found at antique shops, I've been making an occasional stop at a few on my way home from work. My first goal was to find a new table set for our breakfast nook. I scoured the web first to see if I could find anything suitable for an acceptable price but didn't have much luck. Then I found this beauty for only $65 at a local thrift shop!

You have to have vision when looking to re-do old pieces and I figured with a new coat of paint and some new fabric this table could be awesome. The top is the part usually in horrible shape and this one had a near perfect top. Lucky! The basket style back of the chairs paired with the skinny, angled legs was classic mid-century and the chairs would be easy to re-upholster by just unscrewing the seat from the chair. My husband was skeptical but my girlfriends encouraged me and even said if I didn't get it that they would. So, I bought it and headed home with my plan. First, have my husband spray paint the metal with a new coat of silver and second, to re-upholster the chairs with a fun but not too quirky fabric.

I headed to Home Depot and grabbed about 5 cans of nickel colored spray paint and some supplies to clean the metal of any rust and then visited Hobby Lobby for my fabric. After a brief discussion with a friend to help me decide I settled upon a colorful striped chenille material. But, I started thinking about what we would be using this table for. It is going to be our everyday table and frequented by children. I knew that the fabric would quickly begin to get stained and look atrocious plus be a nightmare to keep clean and at $30 per yard I didn't want to replace it in a year. So, I also purchased some upholstery plastic to cover the chairs with. So, in about 10 years or so we'll be able to enjoy the feel of the fabric. Until then it'll be nice and plasticky.

With my supplies purchased I headed home to get to work. Removing the seats was simple and I only needed to tape the edge of the table top for spray painting. So, while my husband painted I began to upholster. It went very quickly. I simply laid the seat on top of the fabric and cut with enough to have some extra for pulling the fabric tight. Then, with a manual staple gun I stapled the fabric and then the plastic to the bottom of each seat. Oh! And I looked up the company that created the table set and they were apparently a pretty big deal and made some very desirable furniture sets for those looking for legit mid-century modern antiques. So, major win! I will definitely be able to make my money back if I ever decide to sell the set.

Spray painting went pretty smoothly. After the first attempt to apply the nickel paint with a built in primer wasn't producing the color we wanted we had to apply an actual primer first so, it took quite a bit longer as the primer had to sit for 24 hours to cure too. We used a white kilz primer. But, the end result was great and definitely worth the extra time.

After a few days of literally waiting for paint to dry and only a little bit of work we ended up with an adorable table and chairs set for our breakfast nook that fits my mid-mod style perfectly. I placed it next to my DIY Easy-Change gallery wall, purchased a new rug from zulily for only $100 and replaced the froo-froo chandelier with a more fitting sputnik styled one from Amazon. Once we finally get around to re-painting and I pick some new curtains it will be a finished space but, with the new baby about to arrive those things are on-hold for now. But, I love my breakfast nook so far and am super thrilled about the table set transformation!