Funky Purple Chair

A couple months back I was watching the Nate Burkus Show and I got inspired by this wonderful crafty woman he had on.  For a while I've been wanting to work on rehabing some furniture and different things for my house or my eventual home.   I was inspired by a chair Mandi, blogger of Vintage Revivals, created and while I was wandering around St. Vinny's found this chair on sale with a coupon for $12. 

Before

After

This was my first attempt at completely hehabing a chair and it turned out to be alot of fun.  Figuring out how the chair went together and how to put it back together after I took it apart was a challenge but a good challenge.  I think the end result is pretty cool and I can't wait to use it as a prop for my photography. 

First I had to take the chair completely apart.  I removed the fabric on the bottom of the chair and from there was able to unscrew the seat and remove the back.  The back had tons of staples and I ended up getting blisters on my fingers from pulling them all out. 

I used the fabric I removed from the back of the chair to make a template to cut out new pieces of fabric.  I left the old fabric on the seat and just covered over it with new fabric.  Saved me a few more blisters ( :  If you're using a fabric like mine that has a distinct pattern on it make sure you line it up so it's centered.  Also when you cut out a piece for the front of the chair make sure that pattern lines up with the seat so when it's all put together the lines aren't off. 

I stapled the fabric to the wood frame making sure to keep everything really tight as I went around.  After I finished stapling I cut off any excess fabric so that the seat would lay flat when I put it back on the frame.  Make sure to cut around the holes for the screws to make it easier when you put everything back together.

This is what the front looks like.

Next I worked on painting the frame of the chair.  Sand the frame down really good so that the primer and paint stick well.  From here you can either use a spray primer or brush on primer.  Either way use many thin coats to help the primer stick.  After you prime it and it's dried sufficiently you can paint it any color you want.  Again you can use spray paint or brush on paint.  I chose this bold magenta because I have purple couches and thought it would go well with them. 

A popular technique is to make a piece of furniture look a little aged and not completely perfect.  There are many ways to achieve this look and lots of tutorials out there to help you.  To get this look I used watered down black paint, a small paint brush, and paper towels.  It may take a little practice to get it right so I tried it on some mirrors that I was working on first.  Brush on the watered down paint and wipe it off with the paper towel going with the grain of the wood.  Keep adding paint and wiping until you get the look you want.  It helps to keep a damp paper towel nearby to remove the paint quickly if you mess up. 

Here's a close-up detail of the aging treatment.

After I finished painting I stapled the fabric backing and foam back onto the chair. Then I added a ribbon detail along the edge of the fabric to cover up the staples and screwed the seat back on.  Now I have a pretty cool prop for photography and a funky chair to put in my someday home.