It all started around Christmas.  Each year, we shove the breakfast room table and chairs into the garage to make room for our Christmas tree – this particular December I decided the table and chairs should never return.

So then we lived without a table or chairs for weeks and weeks.  Our enormous chair sat in their place (we never got our rears in gear to move it out after we swapped it for the secretary in the den), and our house looked like crazy people lived there.

One fateful day, I received a $100 coupon to World Market – our luck had changed!  We earned this gift because we bought a ton of furniture from World Market to stage the flip.  And at World Market, our luck continued – our favorite solid-wood pedestal table had been marked down from $449.99 to $299.99, which made it under $200 with our coupon.  Yay!!!!

I assembled it with love and care, and our table woes were solved.  But what to do about those pesky chairs?  Our guests would surely object to eating dinner while doing squats around the table, wouldn’t they?

So the hunt for 4 affordable, attractive chairs was on.  During the hunt we started refining our criteria – the chairs needed some fabric to soften up the breakfast nook and break up all of that wood, the total price for all the chairs needed to be reasonable, it would be nice if the fabric could be washed, not too modern, not too traditional . . . it went on and on.

As the hunt wore on, I swore that I would not bring any more furniture from Ikea into my home – I was an adult, gosh darnit!  Surely there were other attractive, affordable chairs out there that met our needs.  Weren’t there?

As it turned out . . . nope.  These babies from Ikea turned out to be just the ticket.

Comfortable, slipcovered, classic lines, and the price was right.

But what to do about the slipcovers?  Basic white just wouldn’t cut it – after all, they were going into a breakfast nook where the only two colors currently going on in there were brown and white.  More white wouldn’t do.

So the idea of a Liz-made slipcover was born.  The idea took hold and I just couldn’t shake it – I would transform myself into a seamstress!!  The web abounds with tutorials for slipcovers, how hard could it be?  I decided to tackle the challenge.

Fabric was chosen with the help of my trusty readers, and just a few days later it arrived.

The fabric was gorgeous!

But it just wasn’t right.  At first I convinced myself that I could make it work, but no – the glorious fabric was simply too pink to play nicely with my boldly-hued great room.

I was crushed.  My dream of sewing slipcovers for the breakfast room chairs had died (although I’ll admit I had a few qualms about it) and now the deadline for having my chairs completed was rapidly approaching.  Yes, I have a secret deadline.  You see, I’m having a little backyard BBQ for my 30th birthday on Saturday and I hope to have the breakfast room looking somewhat presentable.

So what’s a girl to do?  To be continued . . .

P.S.  I forgot all about the “Finish this Sentence” blog party this Friday!  The topic is in the sidebar if you want to join in.