Chairs Redo - Part II

Yesterday, in part I of this series, I went through the painful decision-making process to determine how to redo the woodwork on two French style chairs - badly in need of refurbishing.  I made Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (ASCP) link to Annie Sloan site decisions - at least for the first coat - and some tentative next steps.  Today, my decision-making process evolved resulting in some slight modifications of the original plan.  What is particularly nice about the paint and paint treatments is that, as I've read Annie say, you can wait for the pieces that you are working on to talk to you and kind of find your way through the process.  You can always divert to a different color and/or treatment - although it does involve more product and manual labor - so it's good to be at least going in a direction you can stay with.

On the first piece, a very ornate chair that has unusual wooden carvings - in the form of bows and draped materials on the sides (I have never seen this particular pattern before),  I wanted to highlight the carvings and was trying to decide between using a two-toned paint treatment - letting each show to highlight the woodwork or using dark wax to fill in and accent the crevices.  I decided to do the first coat in old white and use duck egg blue on top of the first coat leaving quite a bit of white space behind.

Here is the result:

Duck Egg Blue with Different Quantities of  Old White - I  added some - but not as much as 50%

I used broad brush strokes to get coverage in some areas and not others.  It is good to keep rotating the piece to make sure the amount of coverage is consistent throughout.   Also, step away every now and then to survey the whole piece.  The last photo is of the fabric - linen tweed - I have tentatively selected for the piece.  It should look very fresh redone!

The other chair was a little more of a challenge for me.  I bought some Paris grey paint which I have yet to use.  I tried it on one chair and found it too "battleship/gunmetal grey" and painted over it with a warmer old ochre.  But I was determined to use the paint on this chair.  I had painted the first coat in old ochre which gave it a warm base.  I decided to use the Paris grey sparingly over the first coat and see what I got.

Over the first coat of old ochre, I very sparingly applied the Paris grey - leaving quite a bit of the first coat behind.  It was almost a "dry brush" method - one I gained confidence in as I proceeded.  I found it hard to be consistent so used a little more of the grey than I had planned when starting.  I found a lovely thickly-woven and textured warm cream linen that I will use on the piece - it should highlight the warmer shades.  I think this will work!

Now the chairs are off to the upholsterers for a professional job.  I had already consulted with Mr. Lee (of Song's Upholstery - Norcross, Georgia) about the tufting on the old French chair to see if other treatment options were available.  Tufting is labor-intensive and does increase my upholstery costs.  He strongly recommended staying with the tufting because of the curve on the inside of the chair.  So that's what we will do.  I did not wax before sending these chairs off - that allows me some flexibility to add more top-coat color if I want to after the chairs come back redone.  I would never do this if there was any chance I would be using the dark wax - it would be too hard to keep off of the new fabric.  Clear wax, however, is pretty controllable and much, much less detectable.

Part III of this series won't happen until the chairs come back in their new fabric!  I can't wait!
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