Ivy & Co.: Before and After - 2 chair makeovers

I love painting chairs. I think everyone should have a unique little accent chair in their home. I've come across a few "gems" and have had fun working on them over the weekend. There's 2 in this blog post, so make sure you scroll all the way down!

This first chair was tall and skinny and had this design on the seat:

I'm sure the artwork was beloved back in 1990.

BTW- that white thing below the trees was a drop of surf wax that found it's way to my chair.

Apparently this chair was from West Coast Chair Co. out of Tacoma, WA.

I first sprayed the chair with Kilz, then a coat of a dark teal satin, then a coat of Shiloh in satin.

I sanded it with a 220 grit sand paper so the teal would come through.

I finished with Miss Mustard Seed's Antiquing Wax, and her Furniture Wax, which gives it such a smooth finish.

The cushion is just a little extra flavah. Not all people would say it's their style, but I just love 1970s retro floral prints. The XL rik-rak ties are so fun.

The second chair was a little more of an investment (financially and labor intensive), and truly an antique. The lady who sold it to me said it was a child's sewing rocking chair.

child's antique rocking chair before and after

Here's what it looked like before. Ivy loves putting things in its hidden compartment. The poor little decal was flaking off.

At first I gave it a couple coats of "piglet" pink, then distressed it.

child's antique rocking chair after pink green

I was going to move straight on to antiquing wax which would accentuate it's crevices, but I felt like it needed more. I started to use Luckett's Green Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint, (frankly, because that's the only color of Milk Paint I have), and it got pretty crazy from that point on.

The green went on super thick, so I just started wiping it off with cheesecloth. Ivy came out part-way through and exclaimed, "Mom! Why did you paint my chair pink?!" (She thinks all my projects are for her).

child's antique rocking chair pink green

It still was way too green, so I got a bucket of water and a rag, and just started wiping it off. That's the fun thing about Milk Paint. It's really forgiving. I did a lot of distressing with 220 grit sand paper, down to the wood.