Chairs Are Done!

Well, without further adieu....the chairs are DONE! And so am I. The rest of the fabric arrived and I got busy finishing with the recovering of the seats and the piping. I think they turned out great, but not without some stress, frustration, and the worst: waiting. ;) I feel like I did right after I painted the kitchen cabinets...

Definitely a labor of love.
So here are a few before shots. Clearly, a dated set of dining chairs. A weird mix of dark stain and natural caning. The caning might have had a clear coat, but that's about it. The seat covers were original, and originally yucky.
When I saw them at the Goodwill, I hesitated, I knew they were going to be a big job and would take me a while, my stamina is still not built up since my surgery. I didn't rush, because when I rush I get overwhelmed, but on the other hand, I didn't want to look at these ugly beasts too long!

I took some real time deciding whether to paint or not. In the end, I didn't like how the wood of the table and the wood of chairs didn't jive, so finally I decided on a glossy white for the chairs. The table is a beautiful walnut, and the chairs; not so much. I love the look of white paint and wood, don't you? Plus, with the upper cabinets in the kitchen painted white, painting the chairs balanced out the whole area. I know it's hard to tell, but the kitchen and eating area are both one space. Dining/eating on one end, kitchen on the other.

Here they are with their shiny coat of glossy white, 100% linen for the seat covers and a wonderful shade of green for the piping. Once I was done doing the Kitchen Facelift, I used green, as an accent color and I have just loved it.
See how great the wood looks with the white?

Doing the piping was trial and error (heavy on the error), I've never actually done this before, but I'm working on a post that will explain how I did everything, including sources.