The start of a new dining room... part 1

I've been wanting to refinish my dining room set since... well, since forever. Forever being ever since they were given to us right after we were married over 5 years ago. Back then we were living in a tiny apartment and had no money for new furniture, so my mother in law Karen gave us a set they had in their garage. It's cute - but it's very old and definitely beat up.

We have talked many times about buying a new dining set, but it's expensive! We have always had something more important to put money towards, and so it's been 5 years and we still have the same beat up dining room furniture. So in the interest of not spending money we don't have - I've decided to refinish it (with Karen's permission of course - thank you Karen!). I've spent months trying to decide what I wanted to do with it, and in the end I always come back to white. My time is quite limited, so this project will have to be done in parts. Part one: chairs. Well, only 2 chairs to be honest. I figure if I only do 2 chairs at a time, we will still have something to sit on! Here is one of the chairs before:

And here is the after:

What do you think? I knew from the start that I was going to distress them. Let's face it - with that many nicks and splits in the wood, it would look too unnatural if the finish was an even shiny white! They are not technically finished yet though, my plan is to make some seat covers with a fabric that has some dark in it. My plan at the moment for the table is to stain the top a dark color - maybe something like the color of our floors. If I do that, I'm going to want some dark on the chairs somewhere as well. How do you think they look with a little dark?

So how do you like the chairs white - an improvement? I think so. I heart my new chairs!

Any thoughts or opinions? I'd love to hear! What about staining the table top dark? I'm not absolutely 100% decided on it, only mostly. I would love to hear what you guys think!