Our outdoor furniture is a variety of hand-me-downs. We started with redwood furniture from my parents’ house, which my husband reinforced with additional wood screws and braces. Now we have replaced the redwood chairs and side table with wicker chairs and a marble table. A few years back when my aunt passed away, my father brought us these vintage metal folding chairs. Their paint job has been a long time coming.
My eldest daughter and I used to watch Bewitched DVD’s together. Eating at a restaurant in Paris became a thing. Fancy Nancy helps keep the concept alive. Moving into our home, I gathered into my mind Paris references and the idea of an outdoor cafe. When I reference something or am inspired by something, it functions as a guide, not a road map. Metal folding chairs on their own do not reference Paris, but the inspiration led me to choose blue and white paint for the chairs (Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint, Napoleonic Blue and Pure White) to go with our round white dining table outside.
I hope to find another round blue and white stripe table cloth like the one I saw in a Ballard Designs catalog, but I may have missed the boat on that one.
Eventually I made the trip downtown to purchase the blue paint. I decided to wait before purchasing the white. It look me a long time finish this. I sanded a little, painted and then thought about things.
Rather than go through the painful process of painting the legs with a brush, I taped plastic over the freshly painted blue metal and used Rustoleum Primer for metal in white. It went so quickly!
I’ll what I had left of a sample pot of pure white to finish off the arm rests.
Although I loved the matte look of the chalk paint, with this being outdoor furniture I succumbed to the interior pressure and used a spray on polyurethane.
This is what we have now.
Compare and contrast.
We’re one step closer to Paris.
A little more painting and we’ll be there.