Best chair “find” EVER and what I did to it
I so wanted the title to read “Best chair find EVER and what I didn’t do to it. But a negative is usually not good for a post title and I wanted everyone to see this.
Seriously, almost anything I buy I am compelled to paint or refinish or something. I have never done what I did with this chair. Or should I say I’ve never not done with this chair what I didn’t do. (Did you follow that?)
First of all, here’s the backstory.
My friend and I had hit some garage sales on Saturday and didn’t find much. I said, “Hey, want to go to New 2 You? (a local consignment shop in our area.)
They had some pieces sitting outside but I didn’t see anything I liked. We went inside and while I did find some pieces I might buy, nothing struck me. You know?
I mean I usually do find something and if it truly causes me to look twice I know it’s probably something I want to buy. I can whip through these stores really fast. Same at garage sales. I know my friend likes to look carefully but generally, I don’t have to.
Anyway, I hadn’t bought anything (Remember, I”m trying to be very careful what I buy these days and if I bring something new into the house, something else has to go.)
So we left the store and I know this chair wasn’t there when we went in or it would have caught my attention immediately. It’s a cane chair and the finish was scuffed up in spots. But it was a solid piece and really sturdy. I’ve been wanting to do something with white fake fur like I”ve seen on so many blogs.
Voila’. Inspiration struck.
I had a plan.
I bought the chair for a whopping $10.00 and brought it home. My friend, knowing me as well as she does, asked, “What color are you going to paint it?”
“I’m not”, I replied.
She couldn’t believe her ears. “Then what are you going to do with it?”
“I’m going to sand it some more, polish it, and make a white fur throw cushion for it.” I enthusiastically replied.
Now, she wouldn’t have a scuffed up piece of furniture in her house under any circumstances. But if you’ve read some of my posts these last couple of weeks, (you can find some here and here) you know I’ve really been in a quandary about this moving thing.
Then I heard a message given by a pastor last week as I was heading somewhere. I always turn on my radio to a certain Christain broadcasting network because some of my favorite pastors are on in the mornings. Funny, I’m not fond of Christian music (I know, I know, strange, huh?) but I love to hear me a good message.
Anyway, he was talking about lifespans in terms of days, not years. For example, a person who was forty would, according to actuarial statistics, live so many days. He gave examples up to the age of about seventy. It was sobering.
And would you believe it, the next day I heard a similar message. Hope this isn’t an omen.
I thought, “You know, Rebecca, they’re right. So instead of worrying about this move and putting your life on hold for a couple of years because you have no idea when this is going to happen, enjoy your life.”‘
To me, that means if I want to have projects to work on, so be it. I can’t just be sitting around doing nothing. Oh, I’m still cleaning out stuff because I simply need to. Plus, I want to get used to not having as much storage. While I have a small kitchen, with about four feet of countertop total, I have a wonderful walk-in pantry and a good size built-in hutch in the dining room. But I still have a lot of cooking pans, I never use, dishes and glassware I never use, etc.
God’s got this. We’ve been praying a long time. When the right house comes along, I’m planning on loving it so much that the decisions will be easy to make.
So here’s the chair.
This is how it looked when I bought it. Do you see the possibilities?
You can see it’s scuffed but not a cool kind of scuffed.
Here it is after some additional sanding. After I wiped it down and got rid of the sandpaper dust, I polished it with some orange oil
Here’s a close-up. I may decoupage something “Frenchy” on this back part.
Now, for that wonderful fur seat cover. Seriously, is it just me or do you just love it?
I think it has kind of a British West Indies flavor.
The fur seat over is just a piece of fur folded over with some notches cut out to fit around the back rungs. I have a couple of pieces of masking tape rolled over so it’s sticky all around holding it in place. You probably think I should have at least sewn the edges together and maybe I will someday but this works for me for now. Besides, who’s going to sit in any way?
(BTW, when I bought this fur (Hobby Lobby), the clerk cut it on the backing side and she used a straight edged razor. She said that’s how you should cut fur. She didn’t cut into the fur, just the backing. Than it just kind of separates and doesn’t cut the fur. Thought I would share that with you.)
Most men probably wouldn’t because it would be too “froo-froo” and most women would understand exactly what I did. Besides, have you ever tried to sew fur?
Uhg.
Anyway, what do you think? I am in love with it. It’s so unlike anything else I’ve ever done. Maybe that’s why. And the white fur makes me think of a ballerina in Swan Lake.
Sometimes God uses a chair and a rude awakening that the older I get the fewer days I have. This chair kind of woke me up to that and I felt a kind of strange peace when I bought it home. Like God was sending me a message.
Anyway, that’s it for today. God bless and I hope you have a good one.
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