DIY: repainting barstools

These stools have been sitting in my kitchen for the last month or so, waiting for me to find the time to bring them up to speed, paint-wise, with the rest of our home.  I am so grateful that business is booming that I don’t mind that provisions to my own home have taken a backseat to those of my clients, but whenever I get a free minute, I try to give some love to my stuff, and today I did just that. 

I love these stools, but the wood looked red to me against my dark floors, so I decided to paint them a crisp white, Sherwin Williams Extra White, to match the trim and cabinets in our house.  First, I removed the wicker seat and scuffed them up a little with 60-grit sandpaper to give the primer something to stick to:

Then I applied two light coats of this:

 …and let each coat dry completely.  Then, I used a 100-grit sanding block to smooth the texture.  They looked like this:

Once they were dry, I applied two light coats of my paint and then topped with another light coat of this:

I almost always use wipe-on poly, but since I wasn’t going to distress the legs, I used a spray so as not to mess up my top coat.  The trick to the spray is to hold the can about a foot away from the piece you’re working on so it doesn’t drip.  Here is what they look like now:

I think they work a lot better with our kitchen now!