How to unify a mismatched set of wooden chairs and a round pedestal dining table with a stenciled doily top.

Two years ago a friend gave me a small round kitchen table that she was no longer using. Soon afterward I found two wooden cross-back chairs at a thrift store. Even though each was a different shade of white, they can easily be unified into a dining set with paint.

I had a plan. Besides unifying the paint color, the light beechwood tabletop would be stained dark walnut to give the dining set farmhouse style.

Round Kitchen Table Stenciled Makeover

Then this happened...

Goodbye farmhouse - hello coastal!

To get an idea of where we started, pictured below are the round pedestal table base and two wooden cross-back chairs. You can see that the kitchen chairs are a warm white color and the table base is a cool white. You can also see the round beechwood tabletop leaning against the shelves has seen its better days.

What You'll Need To Make It

The products I'm using for this stenciled dining table makeover are from the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint line.

This post contains affiliate links so you can see what products I used or recommend for this project. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from any qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!

Supply List

Old White Chalk Paint
Provence Chalk Paint
Dark Walnut Stain
Doily Stencil
Floral Print Fabric (Fabricland)
1-Inch Upholstery Foam
Upholstery Spray Adhesive
Polyester Upholstery Batting
Round Stencil Brush
Serrated Knife
120-Grit Sandpaper
Orbital Sander
Upholstery Staple Gun

Here's How I Made It

Unifying the paint colors

To unify the paint color on both the pedestal table base and the wooden chairs, they were all painted with two coats of Old White, a warm white chalk paint color. To add farmhouse charm, the paint was distressed a little with 120-grit sandpaper.

Painting round pedestal dining tabletop

As mentioned, the plan was to stain the light beechwood with a high contrast dark walnut stain like I did on the Duncan Phyfe dining table. So I went ahead and sanded the wood tabletop with my orbital sander with a 120-grit sanding pad to remove the original finish.

My excitement about the dark walnut stain soon waned when after two coats it looked just like the original beechwood finish. My apologies for not having photos, for the life of me I swear I took some.

Sometimes when a plan doesn't work out it is a blessing in disguise. The dark walnut that wasn't so dark ended up being the perfect base color for Plan B.

Plan B - from farmhouse to coastal round dining table makeover

Once the dark walnut stain was completely dry, I decided to give the tabletop a coastal makeover instead like the coastal Bentwood cafe table. To do this you drybrush layers of paint in beach colors. I started by dry brushing a layer of old white chalk paint.

Drybrush Paint Technique

Dip just the tips of the paintbrush into the paint. Remove the excess by blotting the brush on a paper towel. With very little pressure on the brush, swipe the brush across the table with the grain of the wood. The key is to be able to still see the base coat underneath.

Once the white paint was dry I repeated the process with a layer of Provence Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. It's one of my favorite summery colors in her paint line.

A stenciled doily on top of the pedestal dining table

I hadn't planned on embellishing the top of the round kitchen table but I had a lovely doily stencil (see supply list) that I'd been itching to use. It was the perfect size to add to the center of the table with the same old white chalk paint.

Stencil Tip

The best way to get a nice crisp stencil design with no paint bleed is the less is more rule. You want the stencil brush to be almost dry. Remove the excess paint by dabbing the brush onto a paper towel first. 

I personally am not a fan of using stencil spray adhesive to hold down my stencils. I don't like the residue it leaves on the stencil so my preference is painter's tape.

What do you think? I'm so glad I decided to put my new stencil to good use because I'm quite liking the doily embellishment.

Wooden cross-back kitchen chairs

The cross-back wooden chairs did not have upholstered seats but I thought it would be nice to make them a little comfier. Plus fabric would add a nice design element to the dining table set, especially considering I plan on selling it.

I had some pretty floral fabric in my stash leftover from the 70's Coffee Table Upholstered Bench. The color pairs beautifully with the pretty Provence paint color.

How to upholster wooden chair seats

I apologize for the poor-quality photo below. I was doing the upholstery in our basement in the late evening and so the lighting was terrible.

• Remove the wooden seat from the chair.
• Cut a piece of 1-inch high-density foam to fit the seat. A great tip for cutting upholstery foam is with an old serrated bread knife.
• Attach the foam to the wooden seat with upholstery spray adhesive.
• Wrap the foam with a layer of polyester upholstery batting.
• Lay the fabric over the batting and line it up so the pattern is straight.
• With an upholstery staple gun, tack a staple in the center of the seat frame.
• Pull the fabric taut on the opposite side and tack a staple in the center.
• Repeat this step on both sides.
• Work your way towards the corners.
• On the front corners, tuck the excess fabric under. Then fold the fabric into a straight pleat (as pictured below). You may need to use a clean flat screwdriver or an upholstery regulator tool to get a nice straight pleat.
• Tack a staple on the fold.
• Cut the excess fabric around the bottom of the seat.
• Screw the upholstered seat back onto the chair.

Pictured below is a close-up photo of the straight pleat and the pretty upholstered fabric seat.

I took the dining set to an outdoor market and within fifteen minutes was offered a good price for the chairs ONLY. I hated to separate the pieces but a sale is a sale.

Halfway through the day a young woman furnishing her first apartment fell in love with the stenciled dining table and asked, "do you have chairs to go with it?" My heart sunk. But that didn't stop her from buying the table without chairs.

Thanks for stopping by the Interior Frugalista today! I hope you were inspired by this stenciled round kitchen table makeover.

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