“Make A Statement” The Elizabethan Chair Makeover

Hi, my sweet friends!
You know how much I love makeovers, right? If you like them as much as me then you will enjoy this one, I am sure. With this Elizabethan Chair makeover, I am participating this month at The Fab Furniture Flippin’ contest and we’ve been lucky to have DecoArt’s Americana Chalky Finish as our sponsor. I have never had the opportunity to use their products because I used to make my own chalk paint so was excited to try them. Their Chalky Finish Paint is an ultra-matte paint that comes in a ton of gorgeous colors and it is awesome how well it covers the piece in just one layer. I couldn’t wait and made my first try on this wicker basket. For the project I had in mind, I couldn’t decide whether to use Serene or Primitive, and I finally used the last one.
So, before showing you any picture I need to tell the story behind this (now) beautiful chair and advice you is a loooong post. My mother in law had some serious health problems and decided to leave her apartment, where she lived all her life. You can imagine the amount of things she had, so I offered to take a van, board it to the ferry and go to pick the things she wanted to keep. It took me nearly a whole day to fully load the van, and when I was ready driving to the port again I saw this beauty next to a dumpster. Oh no!! I stopped the car and tried to imagine where I could place that chair… 15 minutes later and some elbow grease I had it next to me, obstructing the right wing mirror (the rearview mirror was obstructed way ago), fingers crossed I didn’t meet any policeman on my way. When I was inside the limits of the port and thought I was safe there he was, standing in the middle of the road… and obviously, he stopped me. I don’t know if it was because of the real story I told him or because of my exhausted face but he didn’t fine me, just told me that wasn’t secure and that I had to move things to have vision on any of the two blocked mirrors. Move what, I thought, while seeing the van about to explode!
Eight hours later and back on the island I had my chair home. Then it took me some months to start working on it, but here it is today!

Now tell me, isn’t it pretty? Look at those legs, and the thumbtacks so well aligned; it was worth all the effort. I planned to “Make A Statement”, she deserved it!
By its condition, I can tell it was outdoors for some time.





Lucky me, I had a friend who bought a new huge freezer and it was empty for some time, so he did me the favor to place the chair inside to kill all the woodworm it may had. Such a time saver!! Time to work on Mrs Elizabeth, the first thing was to get rid of the old fabric.





Then I realized the foam was in good shape, so I clean it with a rag and some ammonia solution. I used the metallic brush to get rid of the chipped paint.





It was time then to use some paint stripper to finish the work.
There were places really difficult to work in while the paint stripper was there, as the rounded wood on the back. I tried without success steel wood, sanding paper, the metallic brush was too hard for it so I ended up using one super tool… a clothespin. I hope any professional is reading this right now, but it worked wonders!





Judge for yourselves.
But wait, can you see any difference in the foam? Yes, of course you can go back three pictures. I left the chair outside to get rid of the strong smell and our DOG wasn’t too confident about the comfort of the chair so he scratched it just to check. Ok, something else to fix.





I loved how the raw wood looked and decided to dye it using some “Miracle Liquid“ (http://sweethings.net/how-to-dye-wood-the-green-way/).





You can see the dye, paint and reupholster work at the original post. We did some stripes, I love grain sack style.





Here she stands, elegant, waiting to be seen and admired as in her best days.





And this is my pretty Elizabethan chair, I told you I wanted to Make a Statement.





You can have more detailed information at the original post, and you can visit the Gallery (http://sweethings.net/home-english/) for more projects too.






Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/14275827/make-a-statement-the-elizabethan-chair-makeover site