Shabby Chic White Chair ( How One Man's Trash Became My Treasure )

 

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, one of my neighbours had left an armoire, side table and T.V. on the end of his driveway, with a sign saying "free". I, of course grabbed them up with the intention of transforming them into something " awsome," at a later date. The T.V. is happily living in my husband's " man-cave" in the basement (this room will one day ,of course, be redecorated). But for now, it holds an assortment of mismatched furniture no longer wanted upstairs, and my "found" treasures. I will be revamping the armoire and side- table soon, in a future post, but for today I have another tale of a discarded treasure

It seems this same neighbour is moving, and as I was driving by the abandoned house, I spied a little white chair sitting out by the side of the road.... in the dark.... all alone. I stopped the car and got out. Could it be a hidden treasure? Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was indeed made of wood- a little rickety, and definately in wrough shape. The paint was chipping off ( bonus in my books), and it looked a little grungy. And it was covered in snow. But no matter- I took that lonely little chair home with me.

This is what the chair looked like when I found it ( after a good cleaning with TSP). Oh, and I had to put a little wood glue between the two front legs and the seat cuz it was a little wobbly.

  It already looks kind of Shabby Chic, but I can do better !!!!!!

 Here's the chair in it's original condition.

These are the original cracked and chipped areas of the chair. Close-up detail of the front.

Here's a close-up of the back. It's already chipping- so I don't have to do much to it.

Took out the handy-dandy palm sander ( in freezing,snowy weather)

Thank god we have a car-port for shelter)

I really should have warn gloves- my hands were freezing.  But I did wear the oh-so-fashionable dust-mask and safety goggles!!!! ( Sorry- no pics as the hubby was at work)

Then I sanded some more areas that still looked to shiny.  I went right to the bare wood in some spots, and in other spots I just smoothed out the really rough chips and cracks.  Don't worry- I left plenty of chippy paint for that lovely Shabby Chic look.

See the nice big chips toward the back of the chair!!!!!! Now that I'm thoroughly freezing, I dust off the chair and take it back into my work area for some final touches.

I hot-glued some antique-finish furniture tacks over the exposed steel screws, after clipping off the part that sticks into the wood.

Then I added  more antique- finish furniture tacks to the front for some extra detail.  Now, all I had to do was go over the whole chair with a light coat of brown shoe polish ( I read about this technique on an

 e-how posting on the web).  It gives  the painted wood an aged look, darkens the newly sanded areas, and protects the chair all in one.  Great, cheap idea !!!!!!

Now she's ready to go to her new home in my living room.  I decided to use it as a display table/plant stand since it's pretty rough for sitting on.  I can just see my mother sitting on it and ripping her pants ( Youch!!!!)

And here she is in all her Shabby Glory!!!!!!

I really love this option with the blue hydrangeas and the birdhouse, but I already have two bunches of

 off-white hydrangeas in the ajoining living/dining room.

This blue vase is really pretty too!!!!

 

And here's the third option.

  I'm not really sure yet what is going to perch on the chair- maybe one of my readers can make a suggestion.  My living/dining room is antique white and a soft grey/blue combo.  My husband suggested a live trailing plant of some sort- maybe with white flowers. 

Well, there she is......rescued from a life of being thrown in the trash.  I'm really happy with it, and best of all- it was free and very quick to do.

Bye til next time.  Au Revoir!!!!!

 

I'm linking up to Metamorphisis Monday at

Between Naps on  the porchhttp://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/
Made by me Mondays ><img src="http://www.skiptomylou.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/button2.jpg" /></a><br />

A New Bedroom Mirror and Rug

Hi. I hope everyone is having a good weekend. It's Saturday night and I'm just lounging on the couch, watching T.V., with my laptop perched on my lap.

Have you ever had one of those decorating days/ weekends when everthing just falls into place. Well I did this weekend. I mentioned in my last post that I was going antiquing, but I never ended up going because there was a bad-weather alert in Souther Ontario for Thursday afternoon ( which never happened after all). But all was not lost- I decided to go to one of my favourite off-priced home decor stores ( Homesense)   to look for a small wall- shelf for my bedroom. I didn't end up finding one, but I did find a great small rug on sale for $9.00 and a beautiful large mirror for over my bedroom dresser for $69.99. Considering I had $50.00 from a birthday cheque, it was a pretty good score at only $30.00 out of my pocket.

I immediately went home and put the new rug down, and it was perfect. Next, I tackled the mirror- I still have the almond glossy matching bedroom set from the 1980's that my parents bought me for my first apartment after college- complete with triple- arched art deco style mirror over the dresser. Why is the master bedroom always the last room to be properly furnished? Maybe because no one else really sees it. I sooooo hate that bedroom furniture, and can't wait to get rid of the entire set, but I know I can't do it all at once Patience!!!!

I did recover the headboard 6 years ago, so it's not too bad, and now I have the mirror. Here's some pictures of what our bedroom looks like now.




Here's the old mirror, circa 1980.



The beautiful, new mirror!!!!!

  What an improvement- YES!!!!!!!!!

Now here's my new rug.

I just put it at the foot of the bed, so you can see it as you walk in.

Here's the rest of the room.  I love the cream and sage- green combo and the way it's decorated, but I JUST hate the furniture.

Here's the bed ( I made all the cushions). And the headboard was part of the matching set, but I covered it with a diamond-pattern taffeta like fabric.

Here's the oh-so- lovely almond gloss armoire ( can you see why I want to get rid of it- just kick it to the curb already).

I love my art-work collage and the wrought- iron candle holder and quilt stand.  Some of the art-work is original watercolor my "moi".  I did the two on the armoire, and the top two in the middle of the collage, as well as the second from the left on the bottom.  One day I will post a separate page of all my watercolors, but for today, I'm just concentrating on the bedroom.

Here are a few of the decorative touches in the room.

 I love this little alcove, and the radiator -cover gives me a place for some more knick-knacks. And the hanging roses are from my wedding arrangements- I dried and sprayed them with hairspray.  Still perfect after three years.

I think this garland with the word "dream" hanging on it is sooooo cute.  And the roman- shade is linen, lined in black-out liner ( also made by me).

The curtains are raw-silk and soften up the square corners of the alcove.  I also love the curvy legs of this small wrought iron and tile table.

This chair is an antique and  used to sit in my husband's, grandmother's farmhouse, and was originally covered in dark turquoise damask.  It was stuffed with old bed-sheets and straw.  I redid the cushions and recovered it with this pretty sage- green damask.

Well, that's about the size of it- it's pretty small, but cosy and pretty.

Anyways, as I was saying- this weekend just fell into place for decorating.  Tonight, just before dinner, my hubby decided to walk to the corner watering-hole for a beer.  Five minutes later, the phone rings, and it's hubby.  "Guess what?"  he says. " I was walking down our street, and someone has put out an antique armoire at the curb.  Run down and see if you like it." So I threw on a jacket and my crocs and headed down the  street.  And sure enough, there was a beautiful, wooden armoire with a mirror and a drawer, just waiting for someone to take it home.  It was the perfect size for our bedroom- just needs a small paint makeover.  So I ran back home, called the hubby and told him to to come straight home and get a dolly, while I guarded that" baby" with my life.  And then, I realized , there was also a cute table  and a working T.V. in the pile.  We need a new small  T.V. for the basement, and there was a sign taped to it saying " it works".  So we took all three pieces home-  SCORE!!!!!!!!!!

Now, I'm not going to post a picture of  these things, because the battery on my camera died, but you'll have to stay tuned for the awsomeness that I'm going to make out of this free armoire and table.

And the T.V.- it works!!!!!!!

Well, I guess that's about it.  I'm finishing off a few small DIY projects that I'll post in the next day or so, and then I can hardly wait to re-paint and makeover the armoire and table.

Til next time.  Au Revoir!!!!!