Vintage love in progress

The chair that I found on the side of a road last year, and had instant visions of revamping... anyone remember that chair?

The sad reality of it was that despite my best intentions, this chair remained untouched for over a year. It's had plenty of use, and is super comfortable, but the faded dirty fabric and worn paint remained a sorry detail. I visited a few fabric stores but nothing caught my eye. I knew this project wouldn't get off the ground until I'd settled on fabric to recover the cushion with, and then I'd have a better idea what colour to paint it. Also, I've never done this kind of DIY before. I didn't possess the little necessities such as sandpaper, plastic sheeting to work on, primers, staple guns - and never seemed to get around to buying them. Something else always took priority with the leftover money at the end of each week's budget.

Fortunately, this project got a little reboot a few weeks ago, when I was at IKEA. Of all places, this was where I found the fabric I liked best. A little ironic - I know - as the whole point of this chair is to have a little statement piece that's unlike the rest of our IKEA dominated furnishings.

Anyhow, I bought a yard of the fabric, got home, folded it neatly over the chair's cushion, and have been 'meditating' on whether or not it works. Then over this past weekend, I bit the bullet and borrowed a staple gun from a friend. I unscrewed the cushion, cut the fabric down to size, pulled it into place and got serious with the staple gun... et voilà! 

I like it - a lot. I'd even be happy to keep the wood the same colour, but it's pretty grubby, so I might as well go ahead and repaint it. Besides, with our beige carpet and cream walls, the apartment needs more splashes of colour. Having consulted various DIY blogs over the weekend, I called by Home Depot (the equivalent of Bunnings, for my Aussie readers) with a scrap of the fabric, hoping to find a paint that might match one of the coloured stripes. I had a pale bronze in mind, as we have a few other turquoise things around and - as much as I love turquoise and teal - I hate too much matchy-matchy. I also have a deep dislike of pink, especially for decorating. Lime green I don't mind, but not for a whole piece of furniture.

Amazingly (because I had Miss Pie with me) it only took about fifteen minutes to find all the bits and pieces needed for the paint job. I couldn't find a pale bronze, but I think 'Champagne Mist' has a promising ring to it.

So. To borrow a phrase from a good friend, all my ducks are lined up. This little vintage baby is getting some love at last... as soon as the rain stops, that is. This wet weather is my final obstacle, but being Los Angeles, I'm confident I'll get a decent run of the sunshine needed to paint outside, and soon.

Stay tuned...