I’m not sure you can be in this business if you don’t get excited about making something old, new or better, or cleaner or more functional. We see potential in nearly everything. Since our storage space and free time are both very limited, that can be a potential problem. No need to call TLC and report us for Hoarders, really, we promise. If we had a dollar bucket for every time one of us said “It would be great painted ” we could eat caviar for lunch daily.
One day several years ago I was making a donation run to one of the local thrift shop where we take the few things that don’t sell here. And out front I spotted a pair of chairs that were just dying for a makeover. They have been sitting in my living room since then, untouched. I’ve been drooling over Schumacher’s Chiang Mai Dragon along with the rest of the design blogosphere for almost as long as I’ve had these “project chairs.” However, no where and no way can I justify using $200+ fabric in my house with these charming mutts. You can read about that here.
I’ve looked for countless knock-offs and even ordered something from a bogus fabric website in my attempt to soothe the Chiang Mai beast. Needless to say, my chairs are still untouched. A recent girls trip to Raleigh, NC inspired me to finally get cracking on my chairs after I picked up something totally different for the chair seats. I told myself, this is it. No more fabric.
After we got home from Raleigh, the weather was wonderful and the humidity was almost non-existent for July in Virginia. It was God telling me, now is the time.
Here are the chairs, complete with a photobomb from Beatrix.
They are caned with wide seats and arms, in great condition. They look like they were re-covered by someone with a Swingline and prayer.
So I began to take off the top layer of fabric in preparation to paint them, unfortunately for me there was not a hidden gem of vintage Chinioserie fabric underneath.
My fabulous photography skills dumb luck, make the wood look really rich and beautiful. Trust me, it’s not.
Here’s the first coat of Navajo White – stay tuned for the progress!
Allison