Chair makeover

Late last year hubby went away to his brother's wedding in England for two weeks.

Hubby doesn't like change around the 1:1 house much so I decided to have a little furniture makeover fun while he was gone. I knew he'd be so happy to see us when he got back that he probably wouldn't notice a few new bits of furniture around the house.

My friend Frederica gave me the wine table and I quickly painted it and shabbied it.

I had a list of furntiure I wanted to find at second hand shops while he was away...this chair was not on the list.

But when I saw it I just HAD to have it - the price tag of $5 may have had something to do with that!

It was a very pretty shape...perfectly shabby.

(The power tools are not mine, lol! Hubby had the camera so I had to take the chair to my sister-in-law's house to photograph. I did get a little help while I was there with some other projects!)

What I didn't realise, when I so hastily bought it, was that it had at least 500 industrial strength staples keeping that ugly green fabric attached to it.

I almost gave up on the chair several times because of those staples, it took days to get them out using pliers and a chisel.

I wasn't going to paint the chair because it was really lovely oak but when I put it in the lounge it was just screaming to be painted. I can't say I enjoy painting life size furniture.

The upholstery is less than perfect - I'm hopelss with a staplegun on my own, it nearly shoots me across the room when I try to use it.

A friend gave me the toile fabric which was a furnishing sample. Amazingly there was exactly enough to cover the chair! Even though I added some extra padding I have to say it's not the most comfortable chair in the world.

I was pretty pleased with the result and hubby was very impressed so the chair was allowed to stay!

Only the spool on the left is really vintage. The other three came from the Japan shop and I aged them.

As for the tall blue weathered 'thing'...

it was another Op Shop find, here's what it looked like when I bought it. It's made of brass.

That's something I did enjoy painting!

Meet my sweet little niece Mia.

I look after her five days a week so finding time for mini's and other projects is a bit of a challenge these days! But there's plenty more half finished projects - big and small - around here at the moment...more to show you soon!

Thank you for all your messages regarding the Christchurch earthquake. New Zealand is a very small country and you'll find nearly everyone knows someone in Christchurch. It has been a very harrowing week watching all the news reports on the television. And still so very hard to believe that such a tradgedy could happen here.

Mercedes