When we first moved to the farmhouse, it became very apparent that the limited furniture we were bringing from the apartment wasn’t going to cut it. The rooms looked bare and the scale of the furniture didn’t quite work. Slowly we’ve been replacing them with new pieces like the dining room cabinets (!), sectional couch (!!) and king size bed (!!!). Along the way we’ve also managed to collect six new mix matched chairs. Some of them are garage sale finds and others we’ve been gifted by family – and you better believe I’ve got ideas churning for what to do with each one.
First up is one of my favourite garage sale finds this spring…for a whole $5. This cute chair sits in the dining room beside our dresser/sideboard. I don’t mind the colour and I love the worn out look, but it could use a good cleaning and maybe a coat of wax or poly.
This big arm chair is another garage sale find – $15 including the little footstool. It may look a little lumpy, but this chair is really well built. The seat cushion is down filled and I’m going to add to the stuffing and plump it up a little more.
The fabric isn’t my first choice, but it’s in really good condition. Until I decide what to reupholster it with, I’m just going to glue back on the trim that’s fallen off. The wood could use a good polish too.
The little foot stool was a great bonus itself. When you flip it over you can see these cute legs under the skirt, and it looks to be an antique that was recovered to match the chair. I would love to reupholster it and show off those legs!
The dogs were quite concerned what I was doing with their chair and stool. This is their favourite chair to cuddle up in and enjoy a good sunbeam nap. While one sleeps in that chair…
This crushed blue velvet cane chair was given to us by my mother. It used to sit in our kitchen nook when I was growing and has seen many years of abuse from us kids. This one is getting a whole new look – updated tufted fabric (maybe in a light grey tweed?) and freshly painted arms and cane.
Another family chair that we received was this small rocking chair that was from my great aunt’s home. My Nana surprised us with it a couple of weeks ago (along with some new paintings!). I’m the fourth generation to have it now. Aside from touching up some scratches, this chair is just getting a new cover on the cushion. Maybe a grain sack pillow cover?
While we were away in Ohio, my mother-in-law came out to feed the chickens for us. When we returned, she warned us that there was something in our living room that she’d found at an estate sale and that it was our own fault for giving her our keys, ha! I’d been on the hunt for a chair to sit beside the dresser in the bedroom and this one is perfect…even if it will just be covered in laundry half the time. I love the big ornate legs and the design in the crushed velvet, but the colour won’t fit in with what we’re thinking of for that room. I’m going to attempt to paint the fabric with chalk paint and give the wood a liming treatment, both of which I’ve never attempted before. Wish me luck!
Then last weekend she surprised us with another cool estate find – a worn wooden chair. I love the indent in the seat and the turned spindles. I’ve already claimed this for my desk so I can finally toss the beat up old chair I’d been using before. It needs some kind of protective finish and then maybe a circular cushion to make it more comfortable for late night photo editing.
I’ll be starting the first chair project this weekend while I can do some painting outside in the nice weather. As you can probably tell, I’m really looking forward to working on improving things inside this fall, including our first room makeover which we just decided on last night. These are the things that keep me up at night, in a good, really excited kind of way.
