I can hardly recognise these as Ikea chairs. I've covered the chairs with gorgeous Swedish linen from The Cloth Shop, Portobello Road and painted with Annie Sloan. What do you think?

The chairs, which sit around my lovely old oak kitchen table and a perfect solution to my not finding some nice old chairs (matching or unmatching). The closest I came was some I liked at the auction houses, which had to be bought with a matching table that I didn't need.

I really like the style of my Ikea chairs so I decided to paint them, distressing them in such a way to make them look old. My friend, Helen (who is an artist and also does painting and decorating) and I spent a day together painting the chairs with Annie Sloan paint:

First coat: Annie Sloan 'Graphite'
Edges: Annie Sloan 'Primer Red'
Top coat: Annie Sloan 'Paris Grey' (light coat.

Once the paint dried, we distressed them and waxed with clear wax and dark wax. Six chairs took two of us two days to complete.