Before and After - Mini Table & Chairs Get Striped!

A few months back my aunt and uncle gave me a little table and chair set for Roary's friend (just in case you were wondering, Roary is our golden retriever and Roary's friend is our future babe from Ethiopia). It's been sitting upstairs just waiting for a makeover ever since school ended and I've been on holidays. Oh, how I love summer vacation!

I knew I wanted the table and chairs to be white but I wasn't sure if I was going to add anything "extra" to add a bit of interest. Although we've requested either gender for our referral, we're fairly certain that we will be referred a little boy. So, I kept that in mind throughout the project.

First I gave the table and chairs a good sanding to remove some of the previous finish. Next, I primed the set with Fresh Start by Benjamin Moore.

Once it was primed I painted two coats of Benjamin's Moore's Simply White allllllllll over. It took forever and I got a bit frustrated. Between Roary walking by and shaking/flinging dog fur and bugs landing, squirming, and getting stuck in the wet paint I had about a million touch-ups.

Then, I was stumped. At first I decided to do polka dots all over the tabletop and chair seats with three colours: pale green, pale blue, and pale purple. I bought the paint, bought the stencils, and tried out some sample dots. I didn't like it. Then I contemplated leaving the set plain white but that would have been too plain. I thought about painting numbers on the seats of the chairs but that would have left the tabletop plain, too. Finally I decided to choose something that I knew I would love......

STRIPES! Okay, so I'm a bit obsessed with stripes. But they just look so darn cute all the time.

So I busted out my pencil, measuring tape, and sample size of Benjamin Moore's Gray Timber Wolf (same colour I used on my other tiny chair).

Once the stripes were done and thoroughly dry, I grabbed some sandpaper and started distressing each piece. To tell you the truth, even though I love the distressed look, I've never actually done it myself before. I was nervous. I had to sleep on it and gather up the courage to do it the next morning.

After the first swipe, though, I was hooked. At first I used 100-grit sandpaper and then I moved onto 220-grit sandpaper to smooth it out a bit.

I have to say that I love, love, love the finished product. The colours are tame enough that I can put the table and chairs anywhere in the house and it won't look too bright or too out of place. And of course I can put it in Roary's friend's stripy bedroom. Although I'm really hoping it won't be stripe overload in there. Hee hee!

P.S. I shared this project here:

Piece of Work Wednesday @ Primitive and Proper