The Ugly Chair

Well, here we go. Time to tackle the... UGLY CHAIR! I began the "un-upholstering" of the Ugly Chair one bright sunny morning and 1 million staples later I finished on one hot-as-all-get-out afternoon! Let me tell y'all, that fabric and trim was on good! My poor hand was so sore that my fingers couldn't move from their death-grip-on-the-pliers position! I'll be honest, I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into, but after some thought, and some Motrin, and a big glass of sweet tea, I decided I could do this thing! Here are a few pictures of the process. Here is Ugly Chair prior to the un-upholstering.

The fabric is dreadful and the wood finish is from the "I've got geese in neckerchiefs in my kitchen" era, but I've always loved the shape, so I believe there is great potential here. I'll admit, while I was pulling off the fabric I was secretly praying that someone had used this chair to hide their life savings, but instead I found an ice pop wrapper, what is possibly "droppings" of some sort and a dime.

I added the dime to my laundry room All Monies Found in the Washer/Dryer Become Mama's piggy bank and got back to work on Ol' Ugly. Here she is after I stripped the fabric and trim off (except I forgot to take it off the arm rest thingies until after the picture was taken).

The next step was dealing with the wood. I decided after reading many a blog that I would paint that baby white. I've been reading lots of good things about Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint here and I am definitely going to order some for my next project, but I was impatient and decided while I was at Home Depot I'd just grab a couple cans of Rust-oleum Painters Touch in Satin heirloom white. The can said it gave 2x coverage and was ideal for wood, metal, wicker and more! SOLD!

Before I began painting I lightly sanded the wood with a sanding block I had on hand, then wiped it down to remove the dust.  Now, the key to looking good while spray painting is to use pretty pink plastic party table clothes as drop clothes! haha  Actually I was just using what I had left from a baby shower I threw a while back and since they were cheap and I don't know of any other baby showers I'll be hosting anytime soon I decided to use them.  That and I didn't want to run back to the store to buy a drop cloth!

And here she is all painted.

This last picture is a little blurry, but you can see how I sanded some of the paint off to give it a worn look.  That's right, old is the new new!

I'm so happy with how the paint finish turned out. I sanded around the edges to give it a distressed look, wiped it down to remove any dust and then applied a clear wax to seal it. I've got a long way to go, but my ugly chair is starting to look pretty again! Stay tuned for my adventures in covering double welt cording! YIKES!