Antique Chairs Pt. 2

Ok, so it's been an incredibly long time since I first introduced you to these chairs here. Well I finally got around to finishing them up (which I could not have done without the help of this wonderful, insanely talented woman), but I took so many pictures that I'm splitting it up into two posts. So here is part 2 of my pair of antique chair makeover:

Disclaimer: Lots of Liam pictures in this post. I can't help it! He loves being in the spot light!

With the help of my wonderful boyfriend (and kitty), we began tearing these guys apart.

There was a lot of this:

Which resulted in this mess:

After the crumbly-foam-pocolypse we were left with this:

We popped the backs out and saved them for future reference.

Liam found a place to lay and watch. It's not like he was in the way or anything!

I sanded off the peeling finish so I could paint.

Then I prepared my first coat. I knew I wanted to distress the frames so I mixed a gray color to be the base coat.

I distressed the base coat a little then painted over it with a soft black from Martha Stewart. After distressing I gave them each a coat of wax. You can sort of see the difference: the one in the back was waxed and the front wasn't.

Here are some close-ups of the final finish.

Love love love!

Stay tuned for the finished chairs! Hopefully I can get to the post this week! I'm still settling into my new apartment and need to get some good pictures! Then I'll be able to cross a few things off of Sincerely's 100 List!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Sincerely,

Ashleigh

PS:

A Craigslist Rocking Chair

Moving in t-minus 3 days. Ahhh crazyness. I have so much packing/cleaning to do. And there have been some complications with the couch situation. Frustration!

In the mean time...

I picked this number up off Craigslist for $12. I loved that it was mostly stripped. You could tell this poor girl had been quite a few different colors in her day. Yellow, blue, white, green.

I only had to do minimal sanding to get her ready to paint. I skipped the primer because I knew I'd be doing some heavy distressing. I used a Martha Stewart pre-mixed sample in Ballet Slipper. A few bucks and I had more than enough.

It had this weird little seat. It was too small and uncomfortable to sit on. My dad cut a piece of plywood for me to use as a new, more proportionate seat.

The color is a super soft pink. I'm going through my pink phase late in life and needed to paint something pink. Sometimes I wish I would have liked girlier things when I was little, instead of Power Rangers and four wheelers. But then I would have missed out on pretending to be Blue Ranger (he was the smartest) while riding my fourweeler... 

Anyway!

I used drop cloth to cover the  seat. I had picked out some other printed fabrics but kept going back to the plain drop cloth. I wanted the heavy distressing to take center stage.

I used a super fine sand paper to distress. I've found that doing it this way takes longer but gives a more natural worn look. 

TIP: Let your paint cure for a couple days. It will distress more naturally without peeling as much.

Another TIP: Distress an area, paint over it and distress it again. This makes it look legit haha.

Sorry for so many pictures! I just love all the detail of this piece. And all the pink-ness.

Anyone else having an affair with pink lately?

Sincerely,

Ashleigh

PS:

A Curbside Coffee Table

Who doesn't love free stuff? It must have been fate. Around the time that I picked up my first curbside find my best friend, Rachel, called to tell me she found an awesome coffee table someone was throwing away in her neighborhood.

{I apologize for all the yucky iPhone pictures in this post.}

Here it is after we applied some paint stripper to the top. it looks white, but it's actually a gross looking light yellow. I can't even describe it.

I have nothing against yellow, as you can see in this coffee table makeover I completed a while back. But this was. just. wrong.

The paint job was sloppy and thick and required a lot of muscle to strip.

After the first round of stripping.

After the second round of stripping and sanding forever.

We stained the top dark walnut and painted the base in a white we had left over from this project.

The knobs were on the piece when Rachel found it and we liked them so they stayed. Rachel, unfortunately, does not have room for this in her apartment, so right now her parents are fostering it in their living room. When Rachel does have room for it... it may get ugly!

We did a little distressing to bring out some imperfections and blend nicely with the worn top.

It's a beauty all right. And the only thing Rae had to buy was some stain. This project literally cost only pennies. I'm a little jealous.

Anyone else find any fab "trash" lately?

Sincerely,

Ashleigh

PS: Don't forget to download our free June calendar!

PPS: