From Drab to FAB chair!

This chair went from dated and drab to absolutely FAB!  This was one of the pieces that a client, Melissa from Salon Papillon, brought by for a makeover.  She new exactly what fabric she wanted but wasn't quite sure about the color of the chair.  Hhhmmm.....

We talked about a few choices and in the end she said to "just do it and surprise me"!  That always makes me a little nervous; what if my choices aren't to her tastes?! 

I started by taking the whole chair apart.  And after pulling a zillion staples, we finally had a naked chair.

This was a chair I just knew I wouldn't be able to sand in all the crevices and grooves so I used Adhesion Primer by Sherwin Williams.  Cassie at Primitive and Proper had mentioned before and I thought it was worth a try....LOVE it!  It's not something I will use on everything because it is a bit pricey but, well worth it on projects like this.  

Then it was time for paint.  Melissa planned on pairing this chair with a chest she also brought for a makeover (a future blog) and she knew she wanted it to be cream.   So while at Sherwin Williams I had them color match a brown to the awesome fabric.  French Roast is what we ended up with and a quick two coats was all she needed!  I then mixed a little cream paint with some glaze and rubbed it over the entire chair to help draw some of the details out.  

Without the cream glaze, the details were just lost.  After the glaze dried, I wiped the entire chair with a glaze/stain mixture to add a little depth to the brown, antique the white a bit in some places, and to give a a little luster.  


And then....time to add the fabric and trim!!  This is my favorite part of upholstering because it's the time when the life starts to really come back to a piece.  And with a fun zebra print, there it really added some much needed life to a sad chair!

She was finished at the 11th hour before our Spring Break vacation!  Melissa was on here way and everything was displayed out in the driveway to surprise her....and then I remembered I needed to take pictures!  Sorry about these but, I'm just glad I got some at all!


One more before and after:

From Drab to Fab!  


Thanks Melissa! 
Lisa