Fabulous French Arm Chairs

So, you may remember this pair of fantastically French arm chairs I picked up a few weeks ago.  Even though upholstery and working with fabric gives me hives and makes me curse, I absolutely could NOT pass them up, since I snagged both chairs and an additional armless French chair for a total of $15 at my favorite local thrift store.

The second of these chairs in still in process, but I finished up one so I could share it with you good people.  :)  I painted the frame a high gloss white.  The upholstery is a very small and subtle charcoal gray check.  I’m absolutely over the moon for these chairs!!  I hope they make someone very happy.

I even whipped up a cute little bolster in a fun charcoal and yellow stripe, with rosettes on the ends made from the charcoal upholstery fabric.

I used my favorite of all trim tricks on the chair back.  It’s called two string shirring, and they sell it with all the curtain and roman shade making stuff at your local craft store.  I usually buy it at Walmart, but mine was all out this time, so I picked some up at Joann’s.  I used it on this chair (I tea-stained it to go with the ivory color) as well as this pair of chairs.  Just make sure you get double what you need for a length so it’ll work out once you gather it up.  It makes such a nice, wide, forgiving, and super-cute ruffle trim.  Try it out sometime!

I think I’m going to try and get a few painting projects cranked out before tackling the upholstery on the second chair, but I’m really hoping to get them both done for the Junkrestore Vintage Market in Scottsdale, March 31, April 1st & 2nd.

I have a couple of random before and afters to leave you with.

Here’s a table I actually finished up right before the morning sickness struck me down.  It was a pale and pickled before:

I stained the top my fave Dark Walnut and painted the bottom with an ivory oops paint and added a subtle antiquing glaze:

Next is this little, very traditional two-tiered side table  (I had already started sanding here):

I wanted to do something a little bit unexpected with this cute little table, so I decided to go against it’s super traditional form, and paint it a high gloss red (Kabam!!):

It’s so exciting for me to do these transformations!  I get so excited planning them, and I hope you all have fun seeing them too.  :)  Thanks again for reading!

 

Linking to:

C.R.A.F.T., Thrifty Décor Chick, House of Grace, Primitive and Proper, Domestically Speaking, My Backyard Eden, Miss Mustard Seed

Participating in the Upholstery Challenge over at the CSI Project!