Silk Damask and balloon chairs

When they put these chairs on stage at the last auction my first thought was "if I bring home more chairs, my husband will kill me!" but that was shortly followed by, "those could be SO beautiful!".  The bidding started and my hand shot up!  It was totally uncontrollable and, honestly, there weren't too many others that saw the obvious potential of these beauties!

They were Uuugly (notice the capital) and they got much worse before they got better!  As we started ripping into them, dirt or decomposed filling, just plain nastiness, started pouring out.  I had enlisted the help of my sister but pretty soon she was bowing out!

Yes, that is my kitchen floor....I had NO idea this was going to be such a nasty job!  I knew I didn't want to think of where all that red velvet had  been before my kitchen but, then the grossness behind the velvet was almost more than my sister could take!  We moved outside VERY soon after this picture was taken.

Once they were all taken apart, sanded, and primed, they got a couple coats of heirloom white.  I didn't want to distress them but I did want to add a little depth to the pretty but plain cream so I very slightly glazed them with a beeswax and stain combination.  It adds just a little shine, smells great and is easy to mix the stain into to give the look of antiquing.

Then the really hard part started.  I thought these would be a very easy upholstery job but, they WEREN'T!  In fact, after starting on one, I got so frustrated that I left them sitting in the living room for several days.   I usually don't do projects in the living room (kitchen - yes but living room - no) because there is just too great a chance for dogs, kids, husbands, etc to mess with my project and besides, it's not really fair for my projects to take over the entire house, yard, and garage too is it?  Anyway,  I needed the TV's distraction to actually get these done and when they were finally finished, I was SO glad.  

I was so glad in fact, that I loaded them up and took them to the booth so that no one in my house would touch them (or "look" at them with sticky fingers, or sniff them with drooling lips...).  Just as I was unloading them I realized I had not taken after pictures so, I took some in the parking lot!  Not the best after pictures for such beautiful chairs but, better than nothing!

Why is it that the "easy" projects are always the killers?!?!

Here they are from start to finish!

 I'm so glad I got these chairs that night and that I was able to make them beautiful again. Oh, and that night I came home from the auction with 12 new chairs......Handsome Hubby is convinced (more than ever) that I have a chair problem!  I love the idea of having a great place to sit!

Have a great day!

Lisa