Craigslist Chairs, Before and After!

Well this week has been a harrowing week to say the least. I have been spending it at my parent's house, helping them as they are away on vacation. And doing some amazing reupholstering projects!!! Sadly, the week has gone a bit slower than I initially thought it would, and I have not been able to finish all the projects that I wanted to ::cough, cough, chairs, cough, cough:: though I have picked up another set of chairs! Yikes! My husband looked at me in my face this past week when I was getting overwhelmed and said "You took too much on." Boooooo!! Can't I do it all? Who really needs to sleep??

Anyway so at the beginning of the week my little heart leapt in joy when I found these on Craigslist for $35. Despite some hesitations, (I knew this would totally make my week much more hectic taking them on,) I absolutely HAD TO HAVE THEM. I've seen too many cool chairs re-done like this on my favorite blogs like betterafter.blogspot.com and designsponge.com to pass them up. So here it is, my very own project! Yay for BEFORE AND AFTER!!

Honestly, the chairs were pretty awesome on their own. And as much as I absolutely LOVE to paint wood I can hear the little voice of my parents in my head "Why do you paint wood? Wood is so beautiful. " And this wood was in great condition, so I kept it. I just made the chairs more youthful. :)

It's all in the details! I heart tufting. I am always left devastated when somebody decides to nix the tufting on a before and after...

So for a first DIY upholstery job, I'm happy. They look great. Though I know I can do better. You know what that means right?? MORE CHAIRS TO COME! YAY!

Stay tuned for the next set of chairs... (ie the chairs I've previously posted about!)

For the record, I decided to paint those. AND I'm using springs and hand-tying them. Oh boy! Do you understand why my husband said I was overwhelming myself? LOL

Beaten and Worn Down

Well hello everyone out there in blog world... aka like 2 of you who might actually read *my*blog, (thank heavens this is more therapeutic than necessary!) This is how the chair has been doing...

Yikes! He's all scratched up! ;) And so is the process of redoing a chair... to paint or refinish you have to sand up your surface. And well, can you tell I'm leaning towards keeping the wood natural? I'm actually going to try and lighten up the stain on the wood. So here enters sand paper stage right. And dry, man hands...

And a tired me!

After I spent a night of me sanding down the frame and thinking that indeed I am completely crazy for wanting to go all professional on my own first chair project... (side note, I must name them, any ideas?) I finally ask my husband, "Where is that hand sander you have?"

"In its box somewhere."

Oysh...

But surprisingly, and super thankfully, it was at the very top of our amazingly packed closets! (We live in an apartment with virtually NO storage space...) So I pull it out, and get to work.

YAY palm sander!

And I'm getting excited... because all of a sudden, this project now seems doable. And the sanding is doing a WONDERFUL job taking off the finish of the chair (at least on the flat surfaces, lol...) And then, my conscience gets the better of me...

When I look at the clock...

Hmmmm... It is before 8am... and my husband is asleep in the other room...

OK, I'll just have to hold my excitement until after 8am... does 8:01 work? :oP