The Chair: Part 4 - It's GOOOOOOOOLD

 

 BOOM. Nothing like a little spray paint to start your day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





I didn't worry about doing a perfect job with this. If you look closely you can see a few dark spots peeping out in the ridges, and there was even a paint drip or two that I didn't bother to fix. The reason is that I'm going to cover this with some white or cream paint and then distress it, so why bother?

 

But until that happens, I'm going to love the gaudiness while it lasts. Aint she a beaut?

The Chair: Part 3

I finished taking the cloth off the chair and... it looks so naked. Don't stare. It's not polite.

the last piece of fabric

so naked!

Then came the part I was scared of: removing the stain. I first thought I wanted to paid the chair gold and cover it with white crackle paint. Then I thought paint would be too permanent and considered restaining it a darker color. Then I thought about doing either of those things on top of the existing finish (I'm not sure what all was on the chair and how that would affect whatever I put on top of it). Then I got really nervous and considered leaving it as is, because what if I screwed it up and then it looked ugly and I ruined everything and wahhhh!

So of course I went for it. I started small with a few areas I hope wouldn't be too obvious if it was hideous. I used Citristrip Stripping Gel. I heard this was better for furniture because it kind of glops on the surface unlike a liquid which would just run down everything. I applied it with a cheap paint brush and let it sit for about 40 minutes.

 

 

I came back to it with a paper towel and everything wiped right off. It was really quite cool. With that to make me feel cocky I went full force at the chair. I covered the entire top half of the chair in the stripper and let it sit for a while. I actually put it on right before Thanksgiving dinner, so I was afraid it would dry out, even though the bottle says you can leave it on for 24 hours.

I came back to it after dinner and started wiping everything off. It wasn't as easy as the test areas because there are so many groves and ridges. Getting everything off took hours, some muscle, and about half a role of paper towels, and there was still some left on. I used a plastic fork to get some gunk out of the  grooves. When that didn't get everything that was left I did a second coat of stripper on a few areas.Then it looked a lot better, and I figure anything left will probably be hid by whatever I cover it with anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Chair: Part 2

Or as I'd rather call it: demolition day.

I started by taking off the seat. It took about an hour or so, just working my way around the chair prying out staples with s screwdriver. Aside from a couple that snapped, it was actually pretty easy.

dust cover: removed

chair leg piping. check out that discoloration ewwwwwww

BAM! And now, on to the arm rest:

These are pretty small, but uncovering just one took at least as long as the entire seat bottom. There were an unreal number of tiny old staples holding these things together, and a lot of them snapped as I tired to pry them out (which meant I stabbed myself with a screwdriver quite a few times). GOOD TIMES.

 At this point my arms were sore and my hands were tired of being punctured, so I stopped for the night.

The Chair: Part 1

So now that I'm back on the waggon for a minute, I'll mention the chair. My grandparents had a set of armchairs in their livingroom that I always liked. When I was a kid I thought they were elegant and fancy and were fit for a French palace. When their house was sold the chairs went into a garage where they sat for about a year and a half. I decided I wanted to save them from that languish.

So I drove down to D.C. to take a look at them (and celebrate my grandpa's 90th birthday), and I was surprised by what everyone else knew: they looked like shit. I should mention, in addition to sitting out in an uninsulated garage which has had it's share of squirrel residents, in their former lives the chairs spent at the very least 20 years in a home with three chain smokers. And six children. And 9 grandchildren.

Well, I could only fit one of the pair in my car to come home with me, so I picked the better of the two. Here's what it looked like:

As you can see the chair itself is in good shape, but the material had definitely past its prime. It had stains, wear, a cigarette burn, and some serious discoloration. Also, I had to leave it out on my desk because it stank so badly of stale cigarettes. Ew.

I've tried reupholstering furniture before, but always stupid things that I didn't care about. So I've been sitting on it (ha!) for about three months, contemplating how to best restore the chair and whether I wanted to change the look or just clean it up. I even called a local reupholstery expert to get a quote. When they told me it would be more than $500 I shit a brick and said kthxbye! But yesterday I got bored, had me some wine, and got to work.

Every piece of advice I had read suggested taking copious amount of photographs as you work to help you remember how to put everything back together. So here are some more before pictures, looking at what I anticipate being some of the trickier spots.

apple bottom

corners, piping, and discoloration, oh my!

so. many. circles.

arm rest

back

where seat meets legs

underbelly

and that's all she wrote. In this incarnation...

one post at a time

I suck at blogging. I always want this to be a place where I track projects and the like for myself, but then once I get into something and find it time to post about it I'm all 'whatever' (see: my garden). Well, I'm at it again, this time with some crafty goodness. I really think if I didn't have my day job I'd try to be a DIY-er, plus staying busy helps keep away those winter blues.

My first project can hardly be considered a project because it took all of 5 minutes. I bring you: an earring frame! Yes, I know every woman who has ever fancied herself handy has made one, so I figured it was my turn. Plus, my dresser was out of control.

Here's how it went down:

1 picture frame from michaels + 1 roll of window screen + a few tools I already had laying around = pretty organization. That's it.

Total cost of project: $14.07. Plus, I get to return a jewelry stand I bought for $16 and later regretted, so I feel like I made a profit of a whopping $1.93. Bitchin.

 And now, for your viewing pleasure:

materials

finished

voila!