Distressed Barstools - wish I could keep them!

If you've been following my blog you've probably seen the last post I did on the living room table set for Caitlin & Jeremy. They also asked me to refinish their bar stools. Like their tables, these too were handed down to them from Caitlin's mom. Good thing she has good taste! Although the finishes on these pieces were dated they had good lines and were built well (the most important things to look for). So these bar stools started out as "rustic pine" furniture that I'm sure we all remember from 5-10 years ago. Caitlin & Jeremy's new dining set is done in a rubbed black finish. Caitlin gave me the liberty to do whatever I thought would look best to these. I wanted it to tie in with the table but not match it exactly. Here's how they look now.

Because I didn't want everything too matchy I decided to go with a little more distressing on the bar stools as compared to the table. After spraying them with several coats of Rustoleum's Indoor/Outdoor black in a satin finish, I hit the edges with a palm sander & then added a few more "distressed" spots so that it didn't look too factory finished.

After the distressing was done I applied a brown glaze (Valspar's Mocha-available at Lowes) with a sponge brush then after about 30min, wiped the glaze off with a barely damp cloth. The nailhead details were too hard to tape off before painting so I just sprayed over them then went back & hand sanded certain areas which ended up bringing through the copper metal. Both stools got two coats of oil based polyurethane in a satin finish (although it looks a lot shinier in the pics). I forgot to mention that I had my boyfriend remove about 4 in. from the legs of the stools to accommodate the lower counter height of their new kitchen.

Caitlin loved the stools & her mom (who they first belonged to) said she couldn't believe they were the same chairs. I have to say, they do go perfectly with the rest of the furniture in their great room. The dark walnut stain I did on their tables ties in perfectly without being so matched that it looks like they hit up a JC Penney catalog sale. Im SO jealous of how quickly their new house came together, they moved in a month ago & everything looks perfect already! Glad I can say I had a hand in it!

Im linking these up to a few other blogs, you can check out some great projects at the following parties;