the anderson estate: A chair for the desk

A few weeks ago I painted our desk back in this post. I love it. We all really love it actually especially with the wax finish, feels so smooooooooth! Anyway, we needed a chair. Its a smaller desk and so your regular desk chairs or stuffed chairs wouldn't tuck underneath it. Well in our garage we've had this chair that we got from the same estate sale where we found the desk, meant to be?! Maybe they we old friends and were used together before? Who knows, but I knew from the beginning what I wanted to do.

Because I'm itching to use the chalk paint powder again I almost veered from the plan, but I decided not too. I needed it to be quick and this old oak chair was really solid and still in great shape. It does still creak a bit when you sit in it, but that's part of its character.

Speaking of character, back to the plan. I wanted to sand it down a bit to get most of that old stain and years of grit off of the wood so it felt new again. Also I wanted the wood to look more natural.

Things went really well too, until that said, "years of grit and grime" started building up on the sander and started leaving these great presents behind. Next time i'll switch sandpaper pads more frequently, but thankfully just sanding it out with some elbow grease took care of it.

I found some great fabric for the seat and wanted to get started on the seat while the weather cooled down a little outside, but unfortunately when I took the old petrified leather off of the seat I discovered there wasn't any padding left inside really at all. So it was back to the chair and the heat outside. Actually that days weather wasn't too bad, it was still hot, just not as hot and humid as it usually is.

So I first used some Re-store a Finish, just rubbed it all over it being careful not to leave it too wet, usually have to wipe it after putting it on.

Then after letting it sit for 30 minutes, and getting dinner in the oven, I put Howard's Feed -n-wax on then wiped that off/buffed it 30 minutes later again. It's hard to see the difference in these pictures, but believe me it is like the cherry on top! That feed-n-wax is definitely the "closer" here. (sorry we just started watching Suits, and we love it)

So for a few days this is how the chair looked tucked under the desk in our home. Then I was able to finally get to the store and buy some padding.

And with a little trimming the foam I bought was the perfect size for the chair seat. And for the Nate Berkus fabric :)

So I put it on the top and then flipped it over and placed it on my fabric where the "dots" lined up how I liked with the edge. Then I got out my upholstery tacks and hammer.

Then I just secured my fabric how I wanted, checking the front along the way. One trick I learned in my upholstery class was that you don't have to nail them in all the way until you are happy with how tight or loose your fabric is.

Then when you get it how you like you finish hammering them in, trim your fabric and then you are done.

Well you are done once you secure the seat back onto the chair frame. And that's when you hear the choir sing and you just have that happy feeling rush over you because you've actually made a sad old chair feel fresh and beautiful again. LOVE IT!

I'm so happy with how it all came together. I originally was going to choose the white with off-white dot fabric, because I thought it would look better with the desk, but then I didn't want any dirt to show since we have littles running and climbing around the house. And the blue ended up looking so much better than I imagined with the wood. the wood also ended up being a little darker than I expected, but I really love it. And I hope you guys do too.