Check out the newest addition to my craft room!
My grandmother bought this sweet little chair when my mom and her brother and sister were little kids growing up in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Grandma worked as a secretary in downtown La Crosse and decided to stop by the town’s one hotel on her way home one day to check out a renovation sale. For $5, she brought home this lovely little chair, probably black or stained wood with a dark green vinyl seat at the time of purchase.
Over the years this little chair was painted several times – once orange and green to match my mom and aunt’s 70s bedroom, once buttery yellow to match my grandma’s writing desk, and once dark chocolate brown, when the chair was passed along to me. I had this chair all through college, though it never got the attention it deserved. I used this chair far more often to hold books or laundry or to change a light bulb than I used it as a chair.
Remember when I revamped my old high school desk a few months ago? I originally wanted to update the chair that went with the desk, but once I saw the chair in the room and realized how big and bulky it was, I decided to find a new one.
Enter the little chair that could. I took one look at my little brown chair and saw potential. I started the process of giving it new life by taking off the flat sheet cushion (painted brown along with the rest of the chair) and sanding the whole chair and cushion so the next coat of paint would stick.
Then I painstakingly spray painted the chair base white. In the process I got to try out a new gadget – the spray gun attachment I got at Lowe’s for under $3. Let me tell you folks: Worth. Every. Penney. After 3+ coats of spray painting I could still feel all my fingers!! Awesome.
While I waited for the base to dry, I cut a 1” thick piece of foam ($3 at Hobby Lobby) to fit on the top of my seat cushion.
I used spray adhesive to attach the foam to the seat cushion and then covered it with batting (1/2 yard remnant $0.80 at Hobby Lobby). I also spread out an ironed piece of fabric left over from my craft room curtains and folded up the edges of the batting and seat fabric all together.
Using my handy dandy staple gun, I proceeded to put about a million staples into the base of the seat to hold the batting and fabric down. Let me tell ya, this baby’s not budging.
Once the base of the chair was completely dry, I put the four screws back into the base of the seat to reattach it and Viola! My little old chair now has a brand new life.
Here’s a shot of it at my newly painted desk. Don’t they go well together? I’m so glad I had this chair. It was the perfect addition to this room – cute and petite and perfectly useful.
