Thursday, February 9, 2012

A New Life

Hello everyone,

Back in 2008 my partner and I were visiting one of the local Farmer's Markets downtown one Friday.  This market is pretty cool- there are craft and antique booths, fresh vegetables, and Joseph Decuis brings in a booth and sells hamburgers and other fine foods.  This place smells amazing!  Anyhow, on one of our trips to this place we encountered a booth this lady had set up selling old dining chairs that she had painted black and placed trendy fabric on, the chair was only about $80.  The only reason I bought the chair was because I liked the lines and the details.  However, I quickly grew tired of it, and needless to say it had to be changed!

 Here it is in our old apartment- that place was so UGLY!

 Outside before stripping the paint

 Satan's fabric

 Here was the surprise underneath the ugly fabric- MORE ugly fabric.  And it stank like old cat piss.

 Gross

 The supports underneath had rotted out- no wonder we couldn't sit in it.

Ready to be stripped

After I had removed the fabric, I used paint stripper to get the layers of bad black paint off.  This stuff was nasty- it burnt through my rubber gloves, burnt my arms, and got in my eyes.  Never again!  Then I sanded the wood for what seemed like years.  Originally I had planned to paint this cream- but once I sanded down, the wood looked nice and weathered- like a chair from Restoration Hardware.  I like that store, so this was a bonus of the project!  I selected velvet for the chair fabric, I knew that in a high traffic seat the velvet would be distressed enough to match the wood- and it looks great!  Overall I'm very happy with how my project turned out, and I look forward to doing it again with another chair- I know my bedroom could use a seat.
 Final Product

 The worn velvet gives it vintage appeal

 Medallion

 The black paint got stuck in some of the carving, and it really helps to accentuate the details

Leg Details

I hope that you enjoyed todays blog- it's a bit off character considering my blog is mostly about shopping/style/my boring life etc.  lol

Until next time-

1 comment:

  1. i seen my uncle repaint his old furniture into white colour and changes the fabric to a modern satan fabric in silvery grey colour,it does really look new..repainting old furniture does give spirit back to the old ones

    ReplyDelete