IKEA Overhaul

Back at the end of June, my friend Carolyn asked if I could help her find a dining set for her apartment. Her place has a very open floor plan, so finding the right set presented some challenges. We decided to try the IKEA in Charlotte since we would be flying out of there for our annual Thousand Islands vacation. After spending some quality time in our favorite IKEA model room (the library), we found this table and four of  these chairs.

[Carolyn and I in our favorite IKEA room]

Carolyn had some really good ideas for how to customize the table and chairs for her apartment. She wanted the chairs to be a mild green, the base of the table to be cream, and the tabletop to be stained a dark brown.

For a variety of reasons, it took me three months to finish the whole project. (Tip: Don't plan spray painting projects for the summer if you don't have an indoor work space. Extreme heat + summer storms = not conducive to outdoor spray painting.) But Carolyn was very patient and here is what she ended up with:

See the gorgeous sheen on the tabletop? That is the result of my first foray into using polyurethane on top of stain. I was really scared I was going to screw it up, but in the end it turned out great! I love the look and it's such a great fit for Carolyn's apartment. For more of Carolyn's style, check out her blog.