The chair I previewed before is still in the same state, purple bedspread stapled over it, waiting for me to shop for (and fund!) fabric. At least it's useable which is better than it was stripped down to the frame in my living room for a month while I stressed over painting or leaving as is.
The chair (with matching couch and coffee table) were a craigslist find that I trucked 1.5 hrs each way (twice... It took two loads to get all three pieces!) in my SUV to bring home. The finish on the wood was beautiful but the upholstery and sagging seat were in rough shape! My (then future) hubby had some (BAD) newer furniture, but this has been the primary furniture our family uses. Including the dog!
Excuse the freshly steam cleaned carpets and empty room. Voodoo is a bit of a priss and doesn't like to get her feet wet ;-)
As I said in my last post, I'd share with you some of the other projects I've done that helped build my confidence to tackle the chair and that is what I'm trying to do here... really! I walked through the house, looked through tons of before and after photos on my phone (hey... I'm new to this blogging thing!) WHAT did I do first??? OMG! THE TABLE! I had no idea I even wanted to paint a piece of furniture other than the couch/chair/table set that I purposely sought out with intent to paint. I dreamed of a black wall, a silver wood frame antique couch against it, gorgeous fabric... I'd envisioned finding something dilapited with a frame more like this and "restoring" it:
But what I found was a heavily carved piece of art! I couldn't reconcile painting the frame, and without reconciling that, I couldn't even begin to contemplate FABRIC! But... I digress...
THE TABLE! Because I loved CL finds LONG before even contemplating repairing/painting my finds, I came across this table. The seller said she was using it as a dining table. I.fell.in.love! It would match my new furniture fabulously and since the furniture was (then) in a combo formal living/dining room... what more could I ask for???
Crappy CL photo from the seller:
I hopped in hubby's truck and trekked across town for it. It was ROUGH to say the least. Her kids had scratched it, it looked like there was white-out smeared on the top... it didn't matter to me. I talked her down a bit on the price and she helped me lug it out of her house (her mom had to remove the front door to get the table out!!!) and load it up into the truck. That was when I noticed one of the aprons on one side was busted off. I was sick! After inquiry, the seller didn't have it and didn't know it was broke, even though she bought it new. Money had changed hands and the table was in the truck. What's a girl to do? Call her hubby and whine. That's exactly what I did. "If you love it, buy it! We can have the piece rebuilt. If it needs refinishing, no prob, we can fix it. It's totally up to you hon." I had.to.have.it. so I drove home w/ it.It never made it in the house. It sat in the garage while I emailed every furniture refinisher in town regarding the missing carved piece. It lived here for months:
Finally, I got up the nerve to get out there and start sanding and stripping it. This is what I revealed underneath:
WTF!!! It's painted beige?!?!?!?! OMG who does this... how did I get myself into this... I emailed the furniture refinishers again and they ALL confirmed that my lovely table, while obviously not antique, was BARELY even real wood! It had a faux (believeable) wood grain finish on it. I was mortified, beat down, ashamed at the 300 bucks I spent for the damn thing... AND with a busted apron to boot!!!!
I dunno who said a "picture is worth a thousand words" but they were wrong! A thousand words cannot convey what was going through my head. WORST.PURCHASE.EVER!
Fast forward a few months... table still lived in the garage and took up a TON of room. Hubby (not my hubby at that time) and I moved on to the 1986 kitchen in our house... we painted the cabinets black, we painted the wallpaper (trust me... it was the only option after the bathroom incident!!!), I even painted the chandelier (Hey... that might have been my first project!!). See, in the time that passed between buying dilapidated (BEAUTIFUL) living room furniture and finishing the table. Hubby proposed. We decided to get married in the house we bought together. Why not fancy up the house with our $$ instead of lining the pockets of wedding planners and venues? That is exactly what we did.
Finally, I decided the only way to save the table was to paint it black. A few cans of primer and spray paint later, and I was loving it (even w/ the busted apron)! We got it into the house (after removing the damn door) and it had a new home in the formal living/dining room with my fabulously dilapidated furniture!
Check out my MAD photo staging skilz!!! Sorry... this pic is like a fast forward to the inspiration chair for the couch/chair finish... (I was checking to see how the chair fit the table) It's in the kitchenette now and I don't have another one to post in it's place. The iron chairs from my existing dining set fit it perfectly and, with the straight wrought iron backs, it allowed you to see the table even with the chairs pulled up to it. Forget the fact that it truly is meant to be a foyer table and even adults feel like they are kids sitting at the grown-up table.... the busted apron provides extra leg room on one side.... it has it's faults, but I still love it!
So..... the big (wedding) day is getting closer. All my furniture got moved to the den to clear out the front room for buffet lines, gathering of family and friends, 3 tiered cakes and the rest of the wedding necessity. A dear friend came over to help me set up the night before and I showed her my cake. It was on a tinfoil wrapped cardboard plate. "YOU DON'T HAVE A CAKE STAND??" she exclaimed, "You should have told me! I could have brought you one." I took her by the hand, led her back into the front room and pointed at my $300 faux wood finish, spray painted, busted apron table sitting in the center of the front window. "That is my cake stand!"
And what a fabulous cake stand it turned out to be!
Linking up to The Shabby Creek Cottage and Miss Mustard Seed
