Subtle White Ombré Barstools

We have moved four times in four years. That's a lot of opportunities to clean out and take furniture inventory! Every space has been so different from the next, so we have loyally stuck to Craigslist, thrift stores, and flea markets for our furniture. While renting our apartment, I find myself not wanting to spend a whole lot on furniture, knowing that one day, when we are home owners, the space might call for something completely different. Of course our bed, our couch, and a few vintage pieces from my Grandmother are going to be perfect in any home we end up in. But the odds and ends--like barstools--I opt to go cheap and DIY. 

We've never had a high counter until moving to Denver. Its so great to have a large tall space! This counter serves as a multi purpose area, housing messy painting projects, candlelit dinners, and a catch all for the daily movement through our little home. I found these rather plain barstools on Craigslist for $10 when we first moved in. I had been putting off painting them for a year, literally, because I demised the fact that I would have to sand them down and strip the coating. One of those projects I always put on the end of my to-do list...

Until I was buying spray paint for the wire chairs and came across Rust-Oleum's Paint & Primer in One, with these words in fine print : no sanding required. At $10 for the chairs, I knew I couldn't go wrong by at least trying the paint, without sanding (quite possibly the best news I've received at Home Depot)--if anything, worst case, the process would be a wash and I would just resand and repaint, or get rid of the chairs. Not much of a loss when the win is not having to strip and sand two barstools! 

I wanted basic white, because our little home has so many dark elements, I try to brighten it up where I can. Yet, I had always loved that ombré look that had been popping up all over Pinterest at the time. So I decided to do a subtle ombré. I used two hues of cream, both darker than the sprayed on white, but still enough of a difference to create a hint of variation from the bottom of the chair leg to the seat. You can see it slightly in the photographs, but in person is much easier to see the effect.

We spend so much of our meal time in these stools, over this counter, and I couldn't be happier with the easy yet drastic difference a little bit of paint has made in this space.