Thursday, December 8, 2011

Redoing SIX chairs!!!

I have learned my lesson. I have learned my lesson. I have learned my lesson. I have learned my lesson. I have learned my lesson. I have learned my lesson!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (note: I wrote that six times.)
I will never again choose to redo more than two of ANYTHING!!!!!!
Soooooooooo................
Kris (my bidness partner) and I got six split reed dining chairs to redo, reinvent, recover and refurbish. I thought it would be fun (HAH!). Doing something six times is not fun, it's WORK.
Here's a picture of one of the chairs before the transformation!!!!!


























                                                                                                            It looked good in the picture. I bought them off the Internet. PICTURES LIE!!! The finish was horrible and the cushions were stained and outdated hard stiff foam.
Here's a picture once we got them in our clutches...


As you can see, the finish isn't so hot.
Kris called it a sickly green.
Soooooooooooo.........
We sanded them!

Those are Kris's hands. This is all she will let me show of her on my blog. She wants to be incognito.







Then we sanded them some more............



















And some more.............................








































   Are you bored  yet?????????????   'Cuz we sure were!!!!!!!!!!!
And then we had to prime the suckers (I mean the wonderful pieces of furniture we were reinventing, with love and joy and LOTS of excitement. Yawn.)


Sooooooooooo
Pretty!!!









Another shot..............................





































It took two coats of primer, we were so over these chairs. That's Kris's hand again. Now her hand is famous!!
As to why we didn't spray paint them....I wanted a more painterly finish, than a smooth spray paint. It probably didn't really matter, but in my delusional head, I think it looks better.
Then we painted them with two or three coats of finish, it depends on which one of us was doing the painting. I'm not pointing any fingers, but some of us (and it isn't me) are a leetle obsessive compulsive when it comes to painting. I kept telling her "Stop being so compulsive!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are going to bang the @#$% out of them anyway to give them a fabulous shabby finish." But would she listen to moi??? NO. We were using a Martha Stewart paint, and we DIDN'T like it. It glopped up on us, and didn't cover very well. BUT THEY ARE PAINTED NOW, AND I'M OVER IT!!!!!
Here they are all painted!!!!!!!!!







































That's Kris's hand again. It is getting really really famous now!
This is my basement. It is our workshop. We are bidness women!!
We might actually make 5 cents an hour by the time we sell these babies.
O.K. the next post will cover how I redid the seats. It is so cool that I didn't have to pay someone to redo them, now that I am an upholstery whiz kid.
And after that post I will share how I did the backs. I did a really good job on the backs. They are full of dress maker details. So have I piqued your interest?????????

5 comments:

Karen said...

Wow they don't look like the same chairs already. I cant wait to see the rest. I have four chairs to redo ...not looking forward to it.

Katie @ Wildwood Creek said...

With all those spindles I can see these chair were a pain to paint, but you persevered, and they look great!

Amy Chalmers said...

That does sound dreadful but hopefully you will make beaucoup bucks on the set since they have martha stewart paint!!!! haha. Do I remember a blue and white stripe fabric for these chairs the day I visited your workshop? Hurry up and show them and then tell us how long they take to sell, cuz you do very nice work!!

Connie @ Connie Nikiforoff Designs said...

You ARE going to distress them? My, what a lot of prep work knowing you're going to distress/shabby them up! As for me, I'd be seriously distressed/depressed if I'd helped with all that only to have my sanding,priming, painting "undone". OK, I admit, I'm getting a little tired of distress-look furniture. But I'll reserve judgement on these very pretty chairs till I see the final :-)
One thing I gotta say, You two are very hard workers!

Janet Metzger, Artist said...

Good Morning Betsy,

OMGoodness....why are you not using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint...no sanding, priming...just open the can and let it fly!

Also, it distressing like a dream...just wondering ;->

Janet xox
http://theemptynest-janet.blogspot.com/

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