Scarlett here isn’t known for being financially shrewd. I do, however, love a good deal (shoes at 25% off? Yes, please!).
Maybe it’s the thrill of the hunt that makes me relish a deal (Girlfriend better not have just picked up that last sequin tee- it’s mine!), or perhaps it’s the fact that I can buffer the sure-thing confrontation with Rhett about some purchases by saying, “Look how much we save on a nanny and a cleaning lady because I do both jobs for free!” Bottom line, I excuse my ridiculous love of shopping by adoring to save a little green wherever I can.
One of the coolest ways to save during the decorating phase of a renovation is to repurpose furniture from your old house (or a fab Flea Market) and re-imagine it in new ways. Sarah and Tommy on HGTV’s Sarah’s House do it all the time. They make it look so easy that I hate them. And by saying I hate them I mean I love them. Oh, can you both come visit me at Tara? I will bake you cookies!
Anyways, Rhett and I decided to do a little repurposing this weekend with an old table and chairs of mine from my life pre-Rhett. Maybe we’ll call it the pre-Civil War era? In any case, it’s an antique white breakfast table with four standard chairs. Not overly impressive, but definitely used and dirty. I had used it as a dining table in my small apartment for many years and then it moonlighted as a craft table in our oldest’s play room. Now it will finally have its time in the sun as a true breakfast table.
All it needed was a little coat of paint.
Turns out that involves a good amount of sanding first. As a runner I use my shoulders only as much as I lift children and shopping bags, so now after sanding all weekend I can barely feel my right shoulder. Ah, battle wounds!
After a tenuous afternoon at Home Depot we finally decided on a paint color called Mississippi Mud in High Gloss. Choosing high gloss paint for furniture, especially furniture you will need to clean often, is paramount. Flat paint simply does not clean easily and it wouldn’t have the smooth finish we were looking for. The saleswoman in the paint department told me she loved the color I picked out- I blushed. Rhett rolled his eyes.
Because Rhett is Rhett, he used a compressor and a spray gun (yes, we own both- you should see our garage) to spray the table and chairs. Scarlett would have used a paintbrush (and it would have taken 8 times as long and look terrible), but Rhett is fancy when it comes to these projects. He laid out plastic sheeting in our driveway, held down the corners with wood, and it was time to get started.
I came bouncing out of the garage in my sorority shorts to help and Rhett gave me the kiddie job of pouring some paint through a funnel filter into the can that attaches to the spray gun. And I screwed it up. The paint came out of the can much faster than I thought, and we at once had paint all over the stone wall behind our driveway. Whoops! Rhett walked quietly into the kitchen to get paper towels while I ran to get the hose, which shot water all over Kingdom come. Sheesh. At this point we hadn’t even gotten to the chairs, but a good portion of the driveway was a lovely shade of brownish-tan.
At least I loved the color.
The table and chairs look great, mainly because Rhett finished the job while I threw tennis balls with the dog. And in the end we have a beautiful breakfast table and chairs all for the price of a can of paint.
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