I put the set in The B Hive Booth at Rockin' B. The chairs sold in a couple of days. Wow.
The chairs were my first set after I got married. Back then, pine furniture was the rage. I used them like that for several years. I stained them dark when the next style came along. At some point their rush seats became tattered and I put the chairs in storage. I have no idea why I didn't get rid of them all this time.
Now that I have a booth, I knew it was time for me to give these chairs a new lease on life. First, I wove new seats. I wove them out of drop cloth fabric and they looked pretty cool. I hate painting chairs and was hoping I could get away with leaving these dark. I put them over at Rockin' B and waited. Every time I looked at them, I felt a pang of regret. I should have painted them. And they didn't sell. Once we started the B Hive Booth, with everything white and cream, I new the time had come. I needed to take those chairs back home and paint them!
Painting took a bit more time because now I had to tape off the woven seats. In the end it was worth it.
I love, love, love them, and even thought about keeping them. After a firm talk with myself about not keeping everything I like, I took them over to the booth.
The table was just a butcher block top with painted legs that was so popular 10 or so years ago. It's sturdy and well made. I love the size of it - just right for a small kitchen table. It would even work great as a desk and I considered keeping it for that. But I was firm with myself again and didn't. I needed a table to go with my chairs.
The table turned out nice, but the distressing wasn't as striking as the chairs because the under color was not dark. It was still pretty, don't get me wrong, but it didn't go perfectly with the chairs. Still I prefer the look of the chairs and think I may play around with painting dark undercoats the next time I paint a light piece of furniture.
In the end, it didn't matter that the table didn't quite match the chairs. The woman who bought the chairs already had a table. Now I'm thinking of setting the table up to look like a desk. All it needs is a great chair to put with it.
