shock and awe

I wrote about a "shock and awe" makeover I was planning to this patio set last October.  I actually did the makeover shortly after that post, but never got around to photographing it properly (still don't know if I photographed it well) and blogging about it.

Since one of the chairs is featured on my new header I thought I'd show you the whole thing!

So here is the before.
Not bad - It's actually cute yellow.  But the vinyl on the seats was old and the paint was beyond cleaning in some spots.   I bought this the first year we were married in a charity shop in Palm Springs.  I was so excited to have a table and chairs for our little patio at the time.   But after several years of intermittent use,  I was contemplating passing it on to someone else.

And then, the light bulb moment.

I had seen all sorts of things people were painting with spray paint and I thought, "Huh, I could do that.  It could only look better and if I don't like it, I'll paint it again!"

So here you go! 

Are you shocked it's aqua blue?  And I just love the curly Q design on the table and seat backs. Oh la la! C'est tres French!

The seats needed some pizazz too.  I loved this Pineapple Brocade from Heather Bailey's Pop Garden line.  SO cute.  I took off the ugly yellow vinyl the existing seat covers and got out the staple gun, the fabric and some clear vinyl.

I love these chairs so much they are often inside as extra seating in the kitchen, at the computer desk, or my sewing table.  If we didn't have so many darn mosquitos we might actually sit outside and use the table more often in the summer!  I don't think I could part with it now.

A note about recovering the chair seats.  I bought the vinyl off the big roll at Joann's.  I think it's typically used for table coverings.  I didn't buy heavy enough vinyl the first time and it got easily ripped.  So I ended up going back and buying a much heavier gauge vinyl and haven't had any problems since.

I guess if you used outdoor fabric to begin with you wouldn't have to use the vinyl.  But how could I have found anything this adorable in the waterproof section??

*****
Thanks everyone for your enthusiastic participation in Sew & Tell!  I'm really happy that so many of you find it motivating and fun to share and see what everyone is working on!  It's totally helping me stay on the ball too.

I had an idea about Sew & Tell.  How would everyone feel about moving it to Mondays after the first of the year?  I was thinking it might make more sense so that you all can have the weekend to work on your projects that you might want to share.  I'm happy to keep it on Friday if that's the majority - just wondered if anyone had an strong opinions either way.

Hope you had a great weekend and are enjoying this holiday season!