Same Thing, Only Different

I just love Cafe Rio. I love the food, love the atmosphere, but also, (and this may sound silly) I love the decor. It's fun and bright, and I'm especially drawn to the fact that their tables and chairs have been painted with bright, happy colors. Every time I'm in there, I admire their tables and chairs, while eating the yummy food.

I have a kitchen table. I love the table. It came with chairs, but they broke. (the store guy said they were a bad batch. whatever, he didn't try to replace them) We tossed the chairs years ago, and have been using folding chairs for the last 7-8 years. Very ugly.

I have a dining room with cute valances. They are very brightly colored with large daisies printed on them. The fabric is called "Crazy Daisy". I have coordinated my entire kitchen with this line of fabric. I love the colors.

I have a patio, and sometimes I like to do projects out there, like potting plants, painting crafty genius things, etc, and I've wanted and needed a table for outside.

I have a brother-in-law. Doug buys the contents from storage units when the renters/owners have defaulted on storage unit rent. One day I happened to ask Doug to call me if he came across any dining chairs, since I'm wholeheartedly tired of ugly, folding chairs in my dining room, especially with my pretty table. Doug's response was that he actually did have a table and chair set, and if we wanted it, he'd make us a good deal. A really good deal, as it turned out. We drove down one Sunday afternoon to take a look at this table and chair set. Doug had warned me that the previous owner had tried to paint things black, the original color was a dark, hunter green, and it wasn't pretty, but with a little work, it might be just what I wanted. He was right--it was UGLY. Ugly but still very serviceable. And it was a good deal. A great deal! Then I had a brainwave.

I put the table out on the patio, and covered it with clear plastic, to make it outdoor proof.  It is now my outside project table.

Then I bought 4 cans of spray paint to match the colors in the valances--Krylon's Global blue, Pumpkin Orange and Watermelon Pink, to be exact. I also used a green from Rustoleum, which is actually only a color number. Then I waited for a day in Idaho in which the wind doesn't blow. This is actually harder than it sounds, because the wind ALWAYS blows in Idaho. This week, though, is an absolutely magic week. The temps are in the 80's all week, and there's been NO wind. So I've been painting chairs. It's going to take more time, and more cans of spray paint, but I am really happy with the way the chairs are turning out. My kitchen and dining room are going to be very cute and coordinated, just like the tables and chairs at Cafe Rio.