Tag: Acrylic paint

#5 Safari chair

Transformation cost: About $18

Just a day after my last post it snowed, and some of that snow still has not melted; it hasn’t exactly been ideal weather for painting and there’s been little to no progress on any transformations! Fortunately I have this little ace up my sleeve. I do feel slightly like I’m cheating with this post since this transformation took place in May 2015, more than 2 years before I started this blog. However, it is an old favorite of mine and it does meet all the criteria to count towards my goal. I picked up the chair from a neighbor’s trash and transformed it into an end-of-year teacher gift. My inspiration came from the fact that Africa was part of this teacher’s Social Studies curriculum. 

I had recently painted a zebra tissue box cover for my BFF in England
(and then one for myself) so I had some practice painting an animal print.

I started by cleaning the chair then lightly sanding it and applying primer.

The animal prints were painted with 4 or 5 different colors of acrylic craft paint.

Two coats of polyurethane finished the job.

#4 Wicker/wood storage chest

Transformation cost: $39.10

I’m so glad I chose to make this piece my first bespoke project; I’m sure I would not have upholstered the lid of this trunk had my client not wanted to use it as a window seat as well as a storage chest. The lid of this piece is a non-standard size and shape. A made-to-order seat cushion would have been very expensive so upholstering the lid was an obvious, win-win solution.
The color scheme in her office (white furniture, pale blue walls and hints of grey) was the basis of our paint and fabric choices.

I began by separating the base from the lid. After a good clean I applied 3 coats of
Rust-Oleum 2X ultra cover in semi-gloss white.

For the non-standard shaped lid I cut a piece of 1″ foam to fit then wrapped the lid and foam in batting.

I then covered the lid with our chosen upholstery fabric. By a stroke of luck I found a fabric whose design almost perfectly matched the design of the wood carving on the base.

Since the fabric pattern matched the wood carving so beautifully, the finishing touch was to hand paint the wood carving in colors to match the fabric.

And finally top and bottom were re-united.
Before the wood carving pattern was easily overlooked; now it gets all the attention it deserves!

Doing double duty as a window seat & storage chest in my neighbor’s home office.