Meet the Rosenhans

A few months ago, we went to a ginormous annual garage sale in Newport that the Pobsts told us about. When I say ginormous, I mean over 100 houses in a neighborhood participate. It is unreal. People spend all day walking or biking up and down every street in the neighborhood.

While we were there, we found a table and chairs that we liked the shape of for a whopping $30. If you know me, you know that to say I have a plethora of furniture is an understatement. Before I taught, I worked for a homebuilder and I took full advantage of buying the furniture out of the model homes. So this table and chairs marks the fourth set I currently own. Clearly we were in the market for another kitchen set. Not.

For YEARS I have coveted Eva's green PB table that she obnoxiously bought at an auction for a steal of a deal. I have seriously told her I will drive to Orlando to get it if she ever decides to part with it, which I'm sure she never will. Since Eva doesn't love me enough to give me her table, we decided to try our hand at refinishing the table and making our own version. (Disclaimer: I've already told you I am the world's biggest copycat. I don't have a creative bone in my body. I admit it.)

Eva's table/the inspiration/my reason for living.

(FYI, this is a stinky phone pic and does not do this incredible work of art justice!)

Eva may not love me enough to give me her table but she does love me enough to take one of her chairs to Home Depot for me and have it color matched. What a pal! Seriously. Can you believe that? I'm giving her my first born.

This is one of the chairs before. Ick.


Preston worked SOOOO hard on these stupid chairs and table. He painstakingly sanded them down to the absolute bare wood before we painted and spent hours and hours working on them. He is so meticulous. I'm sure that's why they came out so well and all of my previous projects have been a bust. I'm not much for being thorough. And instead of just recovering the seat cushions as they were, he cut new wood and foam for them.

Here is one of the chairs after. Preston's sister, Sabrina, taught me how to recover the seat cushions late on a Sunday night the last time we were in Arizona. Bless her soul! She was such a good, patient teacher.


Again, I forgot to take a picture of the table before. Duh. Here is the table after Preston sanded it all the way down. I wish you could have seen the before. Think gross, dark, thick, waxy finish.

And here is the table after. Yay! We love it. (Excuse the white walls and lack of decor. I haven't exactly done much to the place yet.) It actually has two leaves, so it will seat eight. Perfect for our tiny space every day but able to accomodate when people are over. Cool. huh?


The best part is I was able to sell my Pottery Barn table and chairs on Craigslist so on top of having just what we want, we made a little dough. The only problem is, now we're becoming a little obsessed and have a list of items to refinish, starting with a coffee table tomorrow. Wish us luck!