Craigslist Freebie!

This chair was the ugly stepsister to the circle chair except better because it was....FREE!!!  The woman who I purchased the circle chair from was just going to dump it until I grabbed it from her.  I think she was tossing it because it had a faint smell of stale cigarettes, yuck, and one of the arms had been pretty badly chewed on by what I suspect to be a dog in desperate need of a new toy.

The first thing I did when I got home was strip the old upholstery and foam off to try and diminish the nasty odor.  Then I got busy trying to repair the arm.  I knew it would never look perfect because so much had been lost but I could make it look a lot less obvious.  I basically just sanded it until it was smooth. I tried to follow the lines of the arm to make it match the other side as best as possible.  There were a few other places the dog nibbled so I got busy sanding those too.  A little wood filler on a few cracks and it was good to go.

My next step was to prime it.  I used a Zinsser primer that is made to, among other things, cover strong odors.  It worked great.  After a couple coats of primer, no more stale smoke!  Then I went with a high gloss Rustoleum white spray paint.  I thought the spray paint would work best for all the small details in the caning.  It only took a couple coats.  I wanted it to really shine so I followed it up with a spray on poly coat.

The fabric I used to upholster is Premier Prints Amsterdam collection in chartreuse.  This was a big deal for me.  I always want to go bold but usually talk myself out of it.  This time my sweet husband convinced me to go for it.  I covered the seat and then slept on it overnight.  I flip flopped back and worth about whether to rip  it off and start over at least half a dozen times.  I am sooo happy that I didn't.  I love the way it turned out!  I think it gives my room a really fun pop of color.  I didn't tuft the back because of my fabric choice and I thought it made the chair more contemporary.  This was a real test of pushing outside my comfort zone and I think it was a great success.  I can't wait to tackle another colorful project!

that is my printer hanging out under there