have a seat

won't you? stay awhile. ignore the hyperactive dog; she'll calm down in a minute. sterling, sit. SIT. SIT. nevermind.

a few weeks ago, i bought a pair of chairs for 20 dolla at a flea market. check it:


they were a leeetle scuffied up in the leg region:


but i liked the character, and the carved details were fab:


fun fact: when my aunt saw them the other day, she told me that her mother had the exact same chairs in her dining room! crazy coinkydink, yah?

i wanted to make them into something reminiscent of these french and swedish (respectively) babies:



so. to transform these beasts into beauts, i first took out the slip seats. not gonna lie, i didn't hate the original fabric. but it was old and worn:


and i did, in fact, hate what i found when i removed the fabric:

eeeeeeww. dirty white vinyl. blech. i wrapped the seats back up all quick-like with the fabric i bought a joann's to take them from gross to gorg. eous. ok, enough.

the chairs had previously been painted dark brown. answer me this: who paints wood brown? it's already brown. just stain it darker. anyway, i had a lighter treatment in mind. so i took them out back and went to town with the sandpaper.

here's another shot of the roughed-up gams:


and the carved details:


sideways. please excuse.

each chair then got a lovely coat or three of white paint of the spray variety. (if you intend to do some spray painting of your own, i'd highly recommend purchasing one of those spray paint trigger attachments. you will not regret your investment. neither will your trigger finger. trust.)


two issues: 1) it was too bright-n-shiny-sparkly-crisp white for the look i had in mind. i was lead to believe that it would to turn out creamy off-white, but i had to go all joe wilson on the colored cap of the spray can 2) remember that brown paint? yeah...it bled through the white in some places, giving the paint a pinkish tint. lesson on the importance of primer: learned.

good thing i'd picked up a handy-dandy dark brown paint sampler at the home deep:


this thing was super chouette. it had a built-in brush in the lid like a can of rubber cement. i used the brush to apply the paint to the dinged and distressed areas in small sections, then wiped it off with a paper towel. it stuck to the white more than i'd anticipated, so i then used a wet wipe to remove the majority of the brown, leaving the chairs nicely weathered and antiqued. from this:

to this:


and here we have the final product:



success! next on tap: replace all living room furnishings to go with chairs. hmm....