Refinishing a Dining Set

My brother, Darin, and Christy got married this summer. As a wedding surprise we decided to refinish their dining set. I knew darin wanted to get it done, he had talked about it for a while. got ahold of the apartment keys so we were able to get in and grab their stuff while they were gone. We had just less than a week to get this project done. With Jeremiah working a lot of hours the sanding was left up to me during the day. 

Here is a shot of the chair during the sanding process. Much to our disappointment, we discovered that under the paint on the chairs was not solid wood, but rather pressed wood. We then had to switch gears and prep for paint rather than stain. 

The table went much better. The sanding was difficult because of the detail in the leg. I had to use many different "implements" to get the varnish out of all those little spaces. It had to be done though, otherwise the darker stain wouldn't have set correctly.

We chose to do a dark walnut stain. Jeremiah even took pictures of the other wood furniture they had to match. Darin had made a really nice chess table, so we were really trying to match that. 

I think it turned out pretty nice. We decided on black for the chairs. My first thought was brown, but then we changed it to a semi flat black. A much better choice if I do say so myself. 

When Darin and Christy got back from their honeymoon, we took the set back over. It was so fun to see their faces with the finished product. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture with the completely finished product. It was a fun thing to do. And I'm glad I turned out well. We love you, Darin, Christy, and Makeala!