Chair Work

That used to mean I was at my job in Charleston, stuck at my desk in an office with bars on the window and a view of only the feet of passersby. Now it has a complete different meaning. Check out what I've been doing the last few days.

All of these chairs were U_G_L_Y. They'd been shed-stored, were dirty with rotting fabrics and lots of dirt and spiders. I got them for a great price, and Larry began his theme song: "Where are you going to put them? What are you going to do with them? I can't blame him--he's usually the one figuring out how to fit stuff in our storage areas. Right now, my house looks like a used furniture store because I have several things in here that are either done and ready for a booth or are waiting for me to work on them. At least I got the ones below almost finished. I am terrible at remembering to take before photos, but perhaps my description above gives you some idea of what they looked like.

This chair was in a dark wood finish with a plastic seat. It's a folding chair, which I thought was pretty cool. I immediately saw it in some funky color--and when I found a gallon of this green half price at Wal-Mart, I knew I'd found the right color. I found the fabric for the seat at Wally World too.

I just love the way it's going to look. I just need to wax it and attach the seat and it's done.

 This next chair was also in dark wood finish, and had maroon velvet fabric on the seat, with gold tassels on the corners. I kid you not. When we removed the fabric, there was some rotting silk and nasty padding underneath, so all that had to come off too. I still have to put new padding on this one and attach the fabric, then put the seat back on. I covered the little stool with matching fabric. It, at least, is finished!

This chair had peeling dark veneer on the center panel, and LOTS of spiders. I used a heat gun to peel away the veneer, sanded it well, and went with a chalky black. I had the tapestry seat cover on hand, and I really liked the way it looked on this old timer.

Next project, as soon as I tie up the loose ends on the others, is this set of chrome chairs. They have wood-framed cane backs and padded seats that desperately need to be recovered. I'll paint the backs white, and bought red vinyl to cover the seats. These will go very well with a dinette table from the 50's that Larry fixed up.

That's what's kept me busy lately, along with booth work, getting the early garden seeds in the ground at last, and a trip to Wheeling to pick up the coolest old glider chair. I'll post pics of that soon. Another project waiting on us!

Linking to Make It Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House, We Call It Junkin and Green Willow Pond today.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.