cheery cherry chair-ies

We had Lowe’s come in yesterday and put new carpet in ya’ll.  After living with the old stuff that had been there since 1995 (it was dated on the bottom when we pulled it up!) I tell you what, the feeling of walking on new, clean, stain-and-weird-stray-hair-free carpet is almost indescribable.  We’ve adopted a no-shoes-on-the-carpet policy that we both keep forgetting about but are trying hard to stick to.  Next step is outfitting the entire house with new window blinds.  All the windows are kind of oddly-sized so we’re getting blinds custom-fit.  They’ll be those 2 inch plantation-style blinds that will lend a really nice updated feel to the place.

On to more DIY though!

The 2 chairs that Scot had sitting at the kitchen counter were a $5 yard sale find from an infinite number of years ago.  They were this icky yellow/tan color-poorly done with paint streaks along the bottom.  After my chandelier project, I was dying to paint those chairs red and use a chocolate glaze on them to give them an antique-y feel.  I bought a can of Rustoleum Satin finish in Heritage Red and a bottle of clear mixing glaze, found the can of primer I used on Chandy was still in the shed, and got to work.

Note: if you decide to take on a project similar to this, just know that it takes 3 cans of Heritage Red spray paint, not just 1.  And it takes 2 cans of primer.  I could move a lot faster through these projects if I only got all my crap together first.

Each chair got a coat of primer first.  I didn’t bother trying to sand them down, just sprayed on the primer and let it dry for an hour or so.  I was already thinking the chairs looked pretty darned good in flat white, just because the yellow-tan was so hideous.

After that, I used up a can and a half of red spray paint for each chair.  I was out in the shed (I guess it’s my new workshop!) bending and twisting all around trying to get every millimeter of chair covered.  It took probably 3 coats, and when I pulled the chair out into the sunlight I found even more bare spots.  I decided to let it sit overnight and dry before glazing.  Later that evening, I noticed in front of the bathroom mirror that the red spray paint had tinted my blonde hair a cheerful, pink hue!  Scot heard me shriek and came in to see what was up.  After studying my new look for another minute, I decided that I look totally…punk.  3 rounds of wash/rinse/repeat took care of that problem.

The next day I found some MORE bare spots on the chairs and spritzed with more red paint.  Glad I let it sit overnight.  I moved the chairs out of the shed and onto some newspaper on the pool deck (newspaper!  See, I’m learning!)  Mixed the glaze according to the directions on the bottle, brushed it on with a paintbrush, let it sit for a few, and wiped it off.  Glaze, sit, wipe.  Glaze, sit, wipe.  The more you do it, the darker it gets.  The longer it sits, the darker it gets, but it also gets stickier and is harder to wipe off smoothly.  I seriously had NO clue what I was doing during this process, but I crossed my fingers, let it all dry and I think it came out beautifully, don’t you think?
Chairs: Free (already owned)
3 cans Spray Paint: $15
1 can Primer: (already owned 1) $3
Glaze: $17 (yikes!)
Brown Paint Sample for Tinting Glaze: $4
TOTAL: $39 for 2 new chairs (So-so. I'm still annoyed at the cost of the glaze but I didn't even use half of it so at least if I need it I won't have to buy it again)