RE-PURPOSED CHAIR

So I did it...I went back and found myself an old dining room chair from the thrift store.  Sad, though it was...I could see the potential!

BEFORE

First things first....I needed to pull up the old upholstery fabric and add some new.   It would be interesting to know how old this chair really is, because when I pulled off the outer layer of fabric, there was another layer beneath---this chair had already been re-upholstered once in its lifetime.  Time for another face lift and while I was at it, I decided it needed some additional padding, what was there was pretty worn.  Eureka!! I knew just the fabric that would turn this chair into a beauty and it was in my existing supply of fabric!

AFTER

After taking care of the re-upholstering, it was time to sand the chair.  I wanted to distress it similar to the distressed cabinet I did last year; different color, but the same process.   What was extra cool was I used several colors of old paint.  You know those gallons/half gallons that you have stashed in the garage and basement that are leftover from the other painting projects in the house?  

After I had roughed up the stain and finish, I painted the entire chair off white...I needed to give it a good light colored base to build on.  After that, I used terra cotta, pale green, gold and light blue to make it look like it had been re-painted many times over the years.  I diluted each of the colors with water as I was painting since I wanted the colors to be muted.

After the painting, I went back at it with the sander to make it look worn and beat up.  There's no formula....you just go for it to get the look you want.

I filled in the flower and leaf motif on the chair back using craft paints; not too much, just here and there--so that it looked worn with age.  Finally, I added a few "diamond" stickers to the center of the flowers for a bit of glitz.

I knew I wanted to swap out the finials at the top of the chair and decided to pick up a couple of drawer pulls at ...... none other than Hobby Lobby!   They were 50% off.  woo hoo!   I pulled off the old ones and drilled deeper holes (well, actually my husband did---thanks babe) since the drawer pulls have extra long screws...add a dollop of glue for added security and you're good!

My final touch was to add the words to the back of the chair.  I found a font that I liked and typed "Sew Original" (little play on words) out on the computer and printed it....I then used the old trick we all learned in art class in middle school and scribbled with a pencil on the backside of the paper and turned it over and traced over the lettering to transfer the words (do-it-yourself carbon paper).  Then I used markers to color in the lettering.  Two coats of spray finish (matte) over the entire chair to set the paint and I was done.  So that's it!  I love it....the chair looks awesome with my new sewing table.  I love the transformation that has taken place in my sewing studio.  It's fun...bright and all me!

Total cost $7.00 plus tax (the chair cost me $2.99 and the drawers pulls were $4.99)