Shabby Chic Chairs With a Retro Edge

I have been very busy this week finishing off some chairs that I bought months ago- I was still pregnant and my baby is now four and a half months. There was a good reason that I put them off though- I have a very strong love/hate relationship with painting chairs. They were the first real project I ever undertook (mistakenly, I thought they would be simple). I love the result, but boy oh boy, painting chairs is hard work. All that surface area and tight little nooks and details and changes in wood grain direction... eugh!

For the home DIYer, here are some tips to making painting chairs that little bit easier- learn from my mistakes!

1. Sand back by hand- it's actually much easier to get an even result then trying to use an electric sander. Don't think you need to sand the whole thing back to raw grain (this was the mistake I made when I first attempted chairs, and I spent full days sanding and still couldn't get them right back).

2. Select a narrow brush for painting all the fine detail and look really carefully for drips before they dry. Keep a cloth with you to brush off drips if necessary.

3. Turn the chair upside down an paint the legs first. This is also a good rule for painting table legs.

4. Double check that you have painted all the sides and angles- it's really easy to miss the underside of a bar when there are so many different sides.

So here are some pics of this project-



Chair before with some light sanding. As you can see I didn't try to get it perfect, just prepare the surface so that the primer would stick.

The finished product- you'll notice it matches the table that's for sale on Ebay.
 If I had the room I would keep both for sure!

 

Gorgeous Shabby Chic Table

I finished this piece a while back, but it's finally up and ready for sale (we have the internet again-yay!) This table is divine but was in a pretty shabby condition. Here is a picture of the before...

I especially love the turned legs on this table, and I have to admit, I quite liked the 'before', but I knew it would look even better after I had given it a little love!

My first step was to sand the whole piece back. It had a pretty nasty varnish on it that was quite thick and peeling off in place, so it needed quite a lot of work to get it back to beutiful natural wood. Then, before finishing the top, I turned it over and painted the legs. Here's a pic of the undercoat. I used a Dulux spray undercoat, mostly because of the detail of the legs was quite intricate and I wanted to prevent drips.

After this, I painted a couple of coats of Dulux 'Green Buoy' on the legs. I love this colour, it is a gorgeous deep turquoise. I then sealed the legs with a glossy top coat and flipped the whole thing over, and giving the top a couple of layers of Cabot's Cedar Satin oil. This is a beautiful colour and the finish is smoth and silky.  Here are some more pics of the finished product...

Check it out on ebay Here!

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Happy Painting!

Welcome to Retro Vintage Love

Welcome to Retro Vintage Love. The blog all about retro and vintage furniture that has been given new life. I hope you enjoy looking at some of the finished pieces. Most of the furniture is for sale- have a look at my Sales page, and there's also some pieces on my Upcoming Projects page. Enjoy!