Distressed Chair á la Français

I spied this chair at Goodwill two or three years ago and, because I saw potential, I bought it for $10. And thus it has sat in our home, not exactly homely, but not exactly pretty either. It has been used quite a lot, mostly as my sewing chair, but also as a step stool and a computer chair for a time. The chair, however, became notorious amongst us for inflicting pain and subconscious fears of tetanus. Sterling refused to go near it after gouging his knee rather badly on the protruding screw that poked through the cushion if you leaned on it in precisely the right (or perhaps, the wrong) way. I almost invariably sit with my feet folded up under me lotus fashion or with one knee up and no matter how many times I poked my foot and got freaked out that I was going to get tetanus (from not updating my booster, fyi), I still managed to do it yet again, next time. There may be scars...
So, one reason for a complete re-do on this chair was to remove the offending "pokie" as Sterling calls it. Here it is in it's primordial glory.


After a thorough sanding


Here I began to freak out a little because, well, I was using turquoise spray paint this time and not black. It was really, really bright! The pictures I took don't do it any justice, it just looks blue, but I assure you it is quite a vivid color. Lagoon blue, it is called.


Fully painted


Now, for the seat cushion, I decided to use burlap. It's a total trend and I'll probably have to re-do it in a couple of years, but c'est la vie! This is how it looks after being washed (for softening). All wrinkly. I had to wet it down again and iron it on max heat for quite a while.


Seriously, the biggest ball of fluff I have ever seen come out of the lint trap after only one dry cycle! I think I'm lucky the dryer didn't catch fire...!


I wanted french ticking down the middle, so I taped off with painter's tape like you would a wall and watered down some screen printing ink (to make it more grey) and went to town!


I was in a hurry and took the tape off too soon and it bled a little, then, but maybe the imperfection is okay. I freehand painted the line down the center.


Next, I designed my graphics to apply over the ticking, then reversed the image for the iron-on transfer paper.




After I set the ink with the iron, then applied the transfer paper with the iron (after meticulously cutting out the letters, I might add!), I stapled the burlap to the seat.


Voila!


I sanded my perfectly painted chair (it was rather hard on me emotionally, by the way, after all the prepping) to reveal the wood tones underneath and then reattached the seat (with shorter screws, eliminating the pokies, of course).



Now I have piece of furniture that looks totally out of place in my formal and subdued home, but I'm hoping that soon it won't look so out of place.