Thursday, March 25, 2010

Lauren's chair - before and after

Honestly, don't before and after pictures just BLOW YOUR MIND??????

Maybe it's because my mind is weak but I find a good before and after seriously motivating, refreshing and invigorating.

I went hope last weekend for about the quickest trip to California known to man but while I was there I promised Lauren that I would help her do something for her room decorations. When I got to California, Lauren showed me her desk chair. Believe me - this desk chair is RIPE with potential and READY for a redo.

This chair (set of 4) was given to my family when my Great Grandma died, so the chairs are 1) antique 2) pieces of crap. Honestly, they were very uncomfortable and breaking. Chipped, and covered in hideous fabric. Please see chair below:

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The first thing I did to the chair was take a hammer to the music staff in the center. Goodbye music staff. Funny story - my mom forgot to tell my dad that I was redo-ing the chair. So he comes home from work, sees me and Lauren painting it and says to us "WHERE'S THE MUSIC STAFF?!?!?!?" hahahah. Whoops!

Anyway, then Lauren and I painted 3 coats of black paint on the chair after the music staff was ripped off and put on another coat of polyurethane.

Onto the cushion. The cushion that was there was just so hideous - and the part where your butt goes was very uncomfortable. So Lauren and I went to the fabric store, bought cute fabric, lining, badding, and padding (2" thick).

The piece of wood was also very flimsy so my dad cut us a new piece of plywood. Thanks dad!

Then Lauren and I covered the wood with the padding, badding, lining and finally fabric (golly it took a lot longer than it took you to read that sentence.) We used a staple gun to make it nice and tight around the plywood.

Final result? Prepare yourself.

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Lauren picked out the fabric because her room is going to be purple with black and white polka dots. Isn't it adorable for Lauren's room??? She was so happy with it. I am so glad to spend time with my sweet sister and have fun projects to work on with her.

Another angle:

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Still haven't worked on my dresser yet!

4 comments:

Teri said...

OH MY GOSH! AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! I knew when you told me about it that it would look good, but I had no idea HOW good! That seat looks SO much more comfortable and all padded and soft (not like it was before at all!). Awesome!

Lauren said...

I love my new chair! It is going to look SOOOO cute in my room!

Danielle Smith said...

Great job! As usual! I have missed you, but I have been feeling like CRAP! Now you know it has nothing to do with you!! I am "with child" as they say, so that is my excuse. This too shall pass and we will have deep and moving convos together again while we redo something and make it look fab!

The How-To Gal said...

Ashley, this is so gorgeous! Some people say it is a crime to paint antique furniture (my grandma for one) but here is my opinion on antique furniture: if you aren't using it in the state it's in...fix it up! It still carries sentimental value, more even when it isn't sitting in a garage gathering dust! You did a beautiful job.