$2 Table and Chairs Take on Colonial Look

by Julie Terstriep

I was at an auction and wanted one of the wooden captain's chairs. Before I knew it, I had paid $2.00 for all three chairs (two captain's chairs and one regular) and the 8 foot long table! I wanted the chairs to have a more distressed Colonial look.

2 table and chairs take on colonial look, painted furniture

One of the chairs and the original table. The finish was gummy and worn. An animal had chewed one of the spindles on the leg on this chair.

I cleaned the top of the table with TSP and then later restained the sides of it. I took the trestle off and stained it a very dark walnut color.

Here is a picture with the sides of the table restained.

At first I stripped this captain's chair completely down and tried staining it dark. (This is prior to the staining.) It didn't have the look I wanted, so I went to a paint.

The regular chair had the spindle repaired with stainable wood putty. These chairs were painted with Valspar trim paint in black. I used beeswax and rubbed it on the distressed areas prior to painting to help take off the paint quickly. After one coat, I hand-sanded areas that would need to appear worn and coated the entire chair with a furniture wax. I later buffed them and am very proud of how they turned out! Not bad for a table and three chairs I paid $2.00 for!