Furniture Friday: Bar Stools by a Chalk Paint Rookie

I am so excited to share with you these bars stools that my friend Donna gave to me!  They had some wear and some need for a bit of clean up, but other than that, they were in good shape.

If you read any of my furniture posts, you'll know that cherry stain just isn't my favorite.  I can't even explain my almost-loathing of cherry stain, but that's just how it is.

Just in case I wasn't sure what this was, it came with a label. 

These had a nice cherry stain on them and, though I'm not a fan, I thought about just keeping it and only changing out the vinyl (it had holes in some places).  But upon further inspection, I found that one stool had a huge chunk taken out of it near the middle of the seat back.  So, paint it has to be.

I've never tried chalk paint (*gasp*!!  I know, I know...I behind the times - but I just have been fine with my spray paint and latex and I thought the wax on top would be a hassle.)

Ok, so...I've never used chalk paint and I thought these stools would be the perfect project to try it on.

I didn't care for having to hand paint with a paint brush - there were so many nooks and crannies on those stools!  Spray paint or a spray gun would have been so much more time effective!  

But I did like the ease at which it went on, the roughness of the initial paint and then the smoothness after the wax was applied.  The wax step wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and only took as long as the painting.  I think painting each chair took me 1 1/2 hours of actual work time (1/2 hour each coat).

I love how they turned out though!