Dining table and chairs re-do

Last August I posted about how I found a beautiful drop leaf table that fit perfectly in our small space. Well, I've loved the table. It's been great for everyday use, and for entertaining. But the finish was completely worn off the top and there were a couple of spots where the top was marred by hot things. And our chairs... we got them ten years ago... they had cream colored seat cushions... need I say more? So I decided it was time for a little re-do. Here are the before and afters:

Before:

After:

For the painting I followed the instructions I found here. She made it sound so easy. But as someone who has never really painted furniture before, I have to say that painting the tabletop made me want to pull my hair out. I was trying to make it as smooth as possible, but with such a large flat surface and sticky oil paint it was impossible. So there are definitely brush strokes. I thought about spray painting, since that's really the only way not to have brushstrokes. But considering that it's a dining room table and it gets a lot of use, I wanted something really durable. So I decided to use a brush and a high quality oil based enamel. And despite the brush marks, overall I love how everything turned out. Especially the chairs. The best part of the chairs is that I recovered the seat cushions with outdoor fabric. So water (and presumably red juice) just beads up and wipes off. So hopefully they won't stain quite so badly in the future.

I love it. Every time I sit down I'm pleasantly surprised by the new fabric and black chairs.