Ever since buying and painting our dining chairs from our local antique centre, we’ve been on the look out for more. But – we’ve not been looking for just any chairs, we’ve been looking for 4 more that are exactly the same as the ones we have.
Yes, this was probably an impossible – or at very least very optimistic – task and let’s face it, finding four old chairs that match the other old chairs that you already have doesn’t sound too promising, but we’ve done it!
Amazing, right?! We’d been carrying around pictures and measurements of the chairs we already owned for such a long time and having seen sooo many that were similar, but just not quite the same, I’d pretty much given up hope on finding ones that matched. It just goes to show that persistence does pay off.
Bizarrely, we actually found a set of 4 matching chairs a few months ago at another antique place, but the guy wanted way too much money for the set and didn’t seem too excited about selling them as he said they came with a matching table (it obviously didn’t, as the style and even the type of wood were different).
We’re still not fans of shabby-chic, but can happily report that our existing four chairs that we painted over a year ago are still holding up really well and have no chips or marks, so we had no worries about painting and varnishing these ones, too.
We used the same method to paint these chairs as we did for the four that are already finished. Essentially it’s – cleaning, sanding, cleaning, painting, sanding, cleaning, painting, sanding, cleaning, varnishing, but if you’d like to read more about the details of how we painted our other chairs, you can check it out here.
As before, we varnished our chairs with some that we had left over from when we sanded and varnished our floor. It may seem a bit weird to use floor varnish on furniture, but we wanted to make sure that it’s a super hard wearing finish and weren’t worried about any chemicals in it – it’s not like we’re going to be licking the chairs after all!
We’re really happy with how all of the chairs turned out and now that we finally have a full set of 8 we could finally get rid of our old Ikea dining chairs which had definitely seen better days.
Essentially we got 8 new chairs for £160 (+the price of a few colour tester pots and a bit of varnish). I’m pretty sure you’d never be able to pick up new solid beech chairs for that. We also love that it make our home more individual and less “Ikea catalogue”.
If you’re wondering where the other chairs are (there are only 5 at the table), the yellow one is currently in our office and the pink one is in our guest bedroom.
Yep, that still leaves one chair and you’re right – we’ve only painted 3 of the four new chairs so far. The first set we painted last year are yellow, pink, turquoise and green.
The 3 finished new ones are orange, purple and red. So, I’m sure you’re asking yourself what’s with the last chair, right?! Well, we couldn’t make up our minds so we thought we’d let you decide! Let us know in the comments, on Facebook or Twitter and let us know what you think!
Have you ever been lucky with a purchase or second hand find? Do you like the shabby-chic style? Do you believe in painting furniture? What colour do you think we should paint the last chair?
Caroline says
Hi to both of you, I have just found your site and it’s fab, it’s given me so many ideas.
I wanted to ask for your help but have just read about your move to Germany. Hopefully you could still advise me, I love what you have done to your dining table chairs and I looked for the Habitat paint you recommended, but just my luck it has been discontinued. I have a cheap table and chairs from ikea that I want to jazz up, but the Habitat paint is now a no go. Before you moved did you use any other paint on furniture you could recommend? Thanks so much
Christine says
Thank you, Caroline! So glad that you found your way over to us.
Always happy to help (& living in Germany doesn’t make a difference).
I loved the Habitat colours, too but I have to say I wasn’t overly convinced by the paint. Our chairs are holding up fine but although the paint was meant for wood and metal it felt very much just like emulsion which is why I varnished everything after painting. It didn’t feel like the paint finish would be durable enough otherwise.
The problem we had is that you only need a small amount of paint for the furniture. Tester pots are only available in emulsion and we didn’t want to buy big pots of wood paint.
I think the Habitat paint was “only” emulsion I’d recommend just buying any paint tester pots you like, painting everything (with super thin coats) and then applying a couple of coats of varnish over the top to protect it.
This way you can buy the small, cheap pots of paint and can basically choose whatever colour/make of paint you like.
Hope that makes sense & happy painting!
Cx
PS. Really you should use paint that’s for wood. Almost all companies have versions of their colours that are specifically for wood. If you’re painting everything one colour that’s what we’d recommend going for.
Life Loving says
I have these exact chairs! I bought them on ebay and then gave them the shabby chic treatment. I love what you’ve done to yours too. Such fun colours.
Sally @ Life Loving
Christine says
Thanks Sally! They’re such a great find!
Cx
Christine says
Thanks Sally! They’re such a great find!
Cx
Sue @ Home Heart Harmony says
I love these chairs! Love that you have used such bold colours. We recently up-cycled some chairs using chalk paint (two of them were exactly the same as yours) and I’m not overly happy with the result. They were great to start with but they so quickly looked really worn (and quite dirty!), I felt like all my hours of painting were not worth it. Boo! Am thinking of giving them all a top coat of regular satin paint to protect them but I can’t face it just yet!! ;-) Yours look great. What type of paint did you use?
Christine says
Thanks Sue! We’re really not fans of chalk paint – it’s difficult to apply smoothly and like your experience the finish doesn’t seem to hold up well. All of our chairs are painted with tester pots of Habitat paint with a few coats of varnish on top. You can read the details of how we painted the first four chairs here. Our chairs all still look great and I personally think that it’s the varnish that’s keeping them looking good.
Cx
Laura T says
Turquoise or Black are my suggestions. What you have is so much fun!
Christine says
Thanks Laura! I love the idea of black!
Cx
Ellen says
Cobalt! Or white?
Christine says
I’d be happy with both!