Chalk Paint Chair DIY

So I am continuing to add some red to our living and dining rooms. Here is the next addition to the new red color story going on in our house. I bought a pair of these chairs about 15 years ago when we lived in Philadelphia.  They have just been collecting dust in our basement for the last few years.  They used to be black.

 I covered the black paint with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint pure white.

 Second coat was chalk paint from Walmart ($7.98).  The color is Imperial. If you’ve purchased chalk paint before you’ll know what a great deal that is!

 I did it very quickly, not worrying about getting a smooth even coat.

 Then I took some sandpaper and “distressed” it.  Distressing is just sanding off parts where it would have naturally worn off over time. I used 100 sandpaper which is a medium grit. If you don’t like this sloppy look , just make sure that your top coat of paint is even strokes.  

 The arms are a place that would get a lot of wear over the years, so I sanded there too.  Annie Sloan suggests using a coat of paste wax before you distress, but I think it distresses easier if you sand before you wax it.

 I sanded the legs and also the rugs and any other place I thought would get natural wear over the years.  The idea is to make the areas that you distress not look deliberate, but look like it happened naturally over time.  When I was finished I gave it a coat of paste wax. 

 The final step was to recover the chair seat.  Sorry I didn’t think to take any photos of how to do it.  Just google it, if you need some instructions. All you need is a staple gun, screwdriver to remove the seat, and fabric to cover it.

Right now the walls in our dining room are a pale yellow. The red chairs are going in there and I have a red chandelier that will replace the white one. I’m thinking of painting the top half of the walls navy blue. If I don’t like it, it’s only paint…  

I didn’t mention this to my husband yet.  I wonder what he’ll think when he reads this post!

Thanks for stopping by. Got time for a cup of tea?  I’ve got my red and white tea set all ready!

Rhondi xo

Good Monday Morning

Good morning dear friends

I like to start every morning with a cup of tea, my journal, my bible, and my “one thousand gifts notebook”, where I record things I am thankful for.

 What a beautiful sight greeted me this morning as I sat in our sunroom with a second cup of tea.

 There were rays of sunlight beaming through the trees.

And as I watched it got brighter.

and brighter

Until it was one big spotlight flooding through the entire woods.

Then I noticed the sun’s rays had caught the delicate outline of a spider’s web .

I am thankful for a beautiful start to the week.

How is your week starting out? 

Rhondi xo

I Missed You

Good morning sweet blogging friends

I have missed you!  I miss hearing from you.  I miss visiting you in your homes/blogs.  I miss sharing with you when I have done something new.  So I am posting something today.  Don’t know if I will be posting a lot or not, just have to wait and see!

You remember my blue and white living room?

 Some spray paint on an old lamp.

 A coffee table found on craigslist painted with white chalk paint.  Don’t you love Chalk paint?  Haven’t tried it yet?  You are missing out on some fun and easy painting!

 New slipcovers on our 46 year old chairs.  Oops, just noticed I took the pictures before I hemmed the skirt on the chairs!

 Steal a lamp and some books from another room.  (Shop the house)

                               Add a quilt I made a few yeas ago.  I named it Wow in Red.

 Steal another lamp from the TV room. ( more shopping the house)

 Take a mirror and antique washstand from another room, more shopping the house.  What is so fun about shopping the house is the price!

 And we have a new living room!  I spent less than $200.

Still have a bit more to do, but I was excited to show it to you now.

Awhile back I said that I wanted to have my home be more calm.  That’s when I painted the living room walls white.  Then awhile ago I started thinking about a red check fabric that I’d seen on Tina’s blog, Cherry Hill Cottage , ( oh my goodness, that was in 2011!) and I decided just to go for it.

I’m working on the dining room next.  It used to have red walls, but when we decided to sell our house a few years ago, I painted it in the pale yellow so it was more neutral color.  So glad we decided not to move after all.

Imagine how great it is going to look at Christmas!

Hope you are having a very good day and the sun is shining on you.  Rhondi xo