The Accent Chair

With all the cool accent furniture out there, I decided to find the perfect project chair at a yard sale.  I searched every weekend for just the right one, at the right price.  Thankfully, I found it a couple of months ago, and with the help of the best bartering father in the world, I got it for $2.00!

I was surprised at how heavy the chair was, and  hoped there was hidden gold in the lining. I told pops and he broke the news that it wasn’t gold making it heavy, it was oak, a hard and heavy wood. I’d find out how tough that oak was later in my project!  I was thinking I could just buy some fabric, stain the wood, and all done.  Easy enough, right?  Wrong!  The previous owner smoked in their house and this chair stunk something awful, not only the fabric, but the foam and the wood!  Oh, boy.  Have you priced foam and fabric lately?  Yikes!

As I took the chair apart I labeled each piece of fabric to use as the pattern for my new material (got that gem from the internet! ) and I took pictures so I would know how it used to look.

Taking out all the staples from the wood took hours and it caused a few blisters. Sanding was easy and I felt like it would be smooth sailing from then on….until the first stain. I really liked how dark and shiny it looked so I decided not to wipe it off. Bad choice… once again I looked it up on the internet and they said that if you don’t wipe off stain, it will peel and look wonky (official word). So, 45 minutes after applying the stain I head off to the shop to strong-arm the gooey almost dried stain off the chair! Guess there are directions for a reason.  Three more stains in the next couple of weeks and it’s finally the color I like.

I was lucky to find my fabric at the store in the misfit section at a great price of $5 a yard!  Unwilling to spend anymore money than necessary I decided to wait and find the foam at a yard sale. Believe it or not, the next weekend at a yard sale I found 2 big black bags full of foam for $5.00! Yahoo!

After being un-motivated for weeks I decided that I just had to get it finished, and so on the anniversary of my mom’s passing, in honor of her unwavering ambition, I would get this project done. Cutting and stapling the foam went smoothly and I was super excited to get the fabric on. That would be the best part, the cherry on top….so I thought.  The oak would not work with me, it was so difficult that I went through a whole package of decorative nails and only used half, because they kept bending and buckling.

Trying to fold and manipulate the material was just not fun. After 6 hours, my back burning in pain, the resolve I began with was hanging on by a thread.  I spent 45 minutes trying to do one side panel by myself and after I got the last nail in I flopped onto my back and let the tears of pain and frustration stream down into my ears and the back of my neck.

My darling husband made it home from work, pulled me into his loving arms, gave me the sympathy I needed and in 15 minutes we got the other side completed.

Sometimes, we all need somebody and it’s ok to ask for help in those times.

It doesn’t look like I thought it would, it wasn’t simple, not perfect, and still needs some work…. sounds just like me…. I guess I really did find the perfect project.