Before and After: my vintage Hollywood Regency chairs

My finished product wouldn't ever be mistaken for a professional upholstery job. No, no it won't. But I am rather proud of my chair. It was my first "big" job. Before, I had only done dining chairs, which is just wrapping fabric around the seat and stapling. This required me to sew the seat cushions. And I had never sewn in piping before. On a round cushion no less. Squares, I can do. Curves notsomuch. At one point, I almost gave up and was going to tearfully bring the chair and fabric to the upholstery shop... but I sstuck with it, and the outcome isn't so bad for a first chair. This is my lessons learned chair since I have another to go.

You remember the story right? I got that at an estate sale. This pair of chairs were from the Muehlebach Hotel. Who knows - maybe a President sat on one!

Without further ado...

BEFORE:


It's like orange shag carpet threw up on a chair! And the once-white lacquer is now rather sad. It took hours of stripping, sanding, staining and sealing, in addition to the agony of upholstery to make this...

AFTER:

No, no, no - it isn't black paint. This is Minwax Ebony stain. I love that it is so dark, yet the light hits it and the natural woodgrain shows through:


I used Polycrylic High Gloss to seal the chair. I normally use matte, but this chair, I think, warrants a little extra bling!


To fiinish off the top edge of the chair, I handstitched on this white edging:

The fabric is Alexander Henry's Hollywood in Pink. This will be going into the pale pink dining room, so I think the brighter pink fabric and dark wood will be a nice accent. This is as "glamorous" as I get. ;)

When I recover from sewing, I will post a step by step. That will require uploading a lot of photos and Blogger is such a pain with that!

before and after: antique pie safe complete!

And the pie safe is finished except for a few touch-ups. Oh, and Steven is going to adjust the door that doesn't want to close up straight. I think it came out very nice for a $20 find! The pie safe was quite old. The shelves in it were not original... they were tongue and groove panels of some sort. They were badly warped and falling apart, so we made new ones. I also picked up a new knob from Hobby Lobby. The paint was all leftover from previous projects. Less than $20 in supplies invested brings our total to $40.

So the Before picture is directly below this post. I don't miss the royal blue doors at all!

Here is the After:

Here it is from the front. I wanted something simple and understated. And I am not fond of attacking all my white furniture with sandpaper. It IS old. It deserves a nice, clean paint job!

And from the side. We re-drilled the pie vent holes. I did a layer of black paint, and then a layer of white so that the holes would stand out more. In person, it really is more striking.

I just adore this little knob I got on sale! It is a frosted glass knob with silver hardware.

I love the little wooden latch!

OK.. now in person, the panel insets are robin's egg blue... the flash made them look more sky blue. The shelves are black.

My pretty dishes now have a home in the dining room. I will tinker with the arrangement later. But they are really pretty for a bargain find ($16 at Good JuJu).

Oh, and those new to the blog... my dining room is IN PROGRESS. The nasty sponge painting? Not mine. I swear. I did NOT do that! :)

my latest find for the dining room

I have a ton of furniture projects in the works... I find a lot of junk store treasures, apply some paint & fabric, you know the drill. Normally, I don't post a picture of it until it is finished, and only as part of a room... I am not really great at posting before/afters of anything but my rooms! Probably because most the "before" pictures are pretty scary!

But, I found something so amazing yesterday that I decided to post before pictures without the afters. (This is because the project is still in progress so I won't get to post afters until a bit later this week...) I just had to share!

This $20 treasure is, at my best guess, the top of a hutch that someone used as a pie safe. Look beyond the blue doors!!! Soon it will have a nice new paint job and a knob.

If there is anything remotely appealing about the colors in the "before" here - it is just the magic of digital flash or something. It is really a grungy white/beige with obnoxious royal blue doors. It will be getting new shelves inside, and flashy interior.

The pie vents have been covered up by too much paint... soon they will be pretty again!

I can't wait to put my antique china in here. I have been picking up random similar-looking pieces here and there on the super-cheap. Right now they are stacked in a cubby in the kitchen... but I think they would look nicer in here. This pie safe has a perfect spot waiting for it in the (in-progress) dining room!