Counter Chairs

Paint and fabric and dishes and furniture. Those are some of the things that can attract my attention in a heartbeat.

Mister used to warn the girls before he left for work not to stand still too long or "... mommy might paint you!" I was all about stenciling everything in the 80's and 90's. I often cajoled friends into painting a room (maybe a bit more daring color than they were ready for) by reminding them "it's just paint". At the time it was not hip or groovy to paint wood and to paint grandma's heirloom table would have been unforgivable. Fast forward to 2016 and everybody is painting everything!

I have shown you my fabric stash before. It is shameful. Over and over again I end up with a project that I could use one of my lovelies for but find I cannot part with it so I purchase something similar and keep my treasure tucked safe away for that "one day" project that will require My Precious and I know I will want to keep it forever. No, I am not on medication. Yes, I probably should be.

Dishes....I could have china hutches filled with Royal Doulton or pretty chintz tea cups, ceramic bowls and iron stone. My first stop in Home Goods is always the dishes. I ooh and aah and sometimes even come home with a piece or two...or more. Funny because my everyday dishes are white, I figure it safest so that I can add anything I want as an accent.

Then there is furniture and I have a cache of abused and abandoned pieces waiting in my basement for my attention. I intend to rework them, paint them and sell them in an attempt to keep funding my hunts for the other addictions. I have shared that Mister is not a fan of all that furniture in my basement but what you may not know is that sometimes he brings furniture home to me! Yes, he does!

Recently he brought home a pair of counter height bar stools. They are black metal with a pleather seat. I immediately put them up for sale on our local yard sale sites on Facebook at a reasonable price and got no interest. I dropped the price three times and didn't even get a nibble. By that last price drop I was asking 1/2 of what I had originally posted them for. I don't think I was being unreasonable in the pricing and was practically giving them away and still nobody wanted them. It was sad. So, what's a girl to do. I yanked them puppies from the sites, took the seats off and started painting!

I used Waverly's Chalk Paint in the color Agave. I purchased it at Walmart for $6 a while ago for another project. Each chair got two coats.

 I then sealed the paint with a spray coat of Rustoleum Crystal Clear Enamel.

Go figure, I have a blurry picture of the Crystal Clear Enamel. Sorry.

Had to wait for a nice day to spray coat them.

Why not just spray paint the color vs. chalk paint? I had that paint on hand!

Originally, I thought I would cover the seats in some of my fabric stash. I have a ecru colored canvas that I thought could work.

I intended to stencil something onto the material; a bee, a number, maybe just a couple stripes.... Naw! I ditched that idea and decided the chairs needed a fun fabric-something summery and playful.

Armed with a Joann Fabrics coupon and a vision I hit the road. I forgot to bring a paint sample with me so I was winging it. I returned with $5 worth of fabric that was spot on for the colors!

I left the pleather on and used the seat as my pattern. I cut a square about 3 inches wider than the seat so I had fabric to wrap under. Starting on opposite sides I stapled the fabric in place, pulling it smooth but not too tight. For stapling think 12 and 6 on a clock. Next I stapled at 3 and 9. Now smoothing the fabric in between the staples I kept moving along each time opposite the last one to keep the fabric smooth and taut. I trimmed the fabric to make it neat and reattached it to the frame.

And... here is the finished product.

In my kitchen, even though there is really no room for them here. 

Taken with my phone.Ugh! 

I had the paint, the chairs were free. It cost me a few dollars for fabric and hopefully, I will get the price I want for them now. I can just see them in someone's Cape Cod home or summer rental. What do you think?

Party Time!
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A Frenchy Craigslist Night Stand

About a year ago, maybe longer, I found a cute little frenchy kinda looking nightstand on Craigslist.

It was in rough shape and needed some TLC but for $12 (yes!) I could not pass it up. At the time my middle child was in a larger bedroom and I thought it would look nice in there or perhaps the younger one's bedroom if I did it up in pink and black. That was a year ago!

I brought it home and eventually it made its way to our field stone basement. Once things are banished to basement it is hard to bring them back. I have a hoard of mismatched, unloved furniture in the basement. Occasionally Mister will comment about my "sickness" but his patience goes only so far. He is wanting to do some work in the basement and that means that my stock pile of furniture projects will need to diminish-drastically!

I brought the little nightstand back upstairs and cleaned her off (and yes, with those cute little legs it has become a "she").

I mixed my favorite version of POP paint from some old paint I had used in the bathroom. The first coat was too blue.

The blue doesn't show well in this photo but it was too blue.

I cut it with some white paint left over from the trim color on our main floor.

The centers of the drawer faces got a coat of Waverly white chalk paint from Walmart.

I painted the side panel white but changed my mind as I went along.

I painted the handles in the same white chalk paint and hit them with silver Rub n' Buff that I used on the dining room mirror.

When the paint was thoroughly dry I tried some antiquing glaze but did not like the look, not for this piece so I painted over it. I tried the Rub n' Buff on the detail on the drawers but did not like that so I had to paint that part, again.

After it dried I used a silver paint pen to outline the drawer faces and side panels.

The whole thing got a coat of Annie Sloan's wax then was buffed for a nice finish.

Much has changed in my daughter's bedrooms since I bought the piece so neither on of them will be using her. Hopefully, I can find a nice family who will love her.

**UPDATE
I came a across a discarded mirror that had been in my youngest daughter's bedroom before her room was made over. Since I had some paint left over I decided to paint the mirror to match Frenchy. I sold them as a set!

Taken on my phone so a little blurry, sorry.

Party time!
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