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my3dogsii

The 'Darn you, Bee, I'm still painting mine' CL chair

10 years ago

I was so inspired by Beekeeperswife's quick turnaround of her incredible CL chairs, that while working on client's stuff this weekend (Hi, Mary, yes, yours!) I had to start one of the CL Century chairs that I bought earlier this year. The finish was in rough shape, so I wanted to paint one.

I had the 'Providence' fabric from Thibaut, and had paint custom blended to match, as unlike Bee's luck, there was nothing in spray paint that was even close. I have 4 coats on the chair, and am still painting, and don't know how many more I'll need.

Depending on your monitors, this may look neon or even dull as I have found with my two monitors. It's neither, and I don't know when I'll finish painting, but wanted to plop the seat in to see how it looks so far.

Before -

During -

Comments (29)

  • 10 years ago

    Oh so cute!

  • 10 years ago

    Love!

  • 10 years ago

    Tres chic!

  • 10 years ago

    Beautiful transformation!

  • 10 years ago

    Gorgeous!

  • 10 years ago

    Ditto all of the above!!!

  • 10 years ago

    Looking great!

  • 10 years ago

    Such a pretty chair!

    (your fabric pattern matching is excellent!)

    ML

  • 10 years ago

    Oh my! As always, you have created a masterpiece!

    Can't wait to see mine! No rush, though; enjoy this beautiful weather in your lovely garden.

  • 10 years ago

    Mary! You don't know how badly I feel about not having them done, but I have been taking a bit of this cooler time to work in the yard. I'm making new pillows for them, too, as those flat down/feather inserts I ordered are NOT the quality that I want to have leave my 'work room'!

  • 10 years ago

    Beautiful..so bright and cheerful. c

  • 10 years ago

    Vibrant and fun!

  • 10 years ago

    There is truly no rush on my chairs! We had an upstairs water pipe burst and flood the house and have been living with torn-out ceilings, walls, baseboards, and floorboards, as well as dehumidifiers and dryers for the past two weeks. Once everything is dried out, we have to wait several weeks before putting it back together, so we can see if the hardwood floors have to be replaced or can simply be refinished. Most of our furniture is crammed into just a few (dry) rooms, so there isn't even anywhere to put the chairs for now.

    Please please enjoy our brief New England summer! There's plenty of time for upholstery work once the weather turns cooler.

  • 10 years ago

    That paint really matches the fabric beautifully!

    The band on the front portion of the seat cushion lines up so nicely with the pattern on the seat (where that white circular part of the print is). That would be very tricky for me to do and would drive me nuts!

    What thickness of welt cord did you use...5/32"? Is your welt cord cotton or some other (somewhat stiffer) fiber type?

    How does that cushion stay (keep from sliding) on the chair...is it attached somehow?

  • 10 years ago

    Gee, that chair would go nicely with the coffee table that I painted for my daughter this past winter, lol! The paint I used was Behr semi-gloss, called Coral Expression. It's a bright color, wasn't sure if I would like it, but in the end, I do like it!

    Love your chair!

  • 10 years ago

    Mary, OMG! How awful! I'm going to finish up this seat cushion, and then I'll move on to my other NH friend who wants cushions for her sun room. I am so sorry that you are going through this. Please keep in touch and let me know how this goes?

    Good eye, Laurie! That is 5/32 welt cord, and it's quite stiff. I buy it at several different online places, and this that I am using now came from an eBay seller FabricandSupply. I have linked one of their listings for it below. I use so much that I always try to find the best price.

    I have never seen a seat assembled like this one. It is held onto the chair with 4 screws that are almost 4" long. The underside is a hard material that had plywood, foam and batting layered on top of it. You make the seat cover, but it consists of only the top fabric that you see, the upper welt cord and the band. That goes over the seat cushioning, and is stapled to the underside of the 'hard stuff', and then the seat is flipped upside down and the bottom welt is stapled the the edge! I took a pic of the old fabric before starting -

    Sandy, it's funny, on MY monitor, YOUR color looks closer to mine in real life than on mine! To me, my pic looks much brighter than it is in real life. I brought my fabric into Lowe's and asked them to mix a color to match it and the man did a great job. I had him put a drop on the fabric sample I brought in, and when it dried, it almost disappeared.

    Here is a link that might be useful: 100 yds 5/32 Welt Cord

  • 10 years ago

    M3D. . .oh my goodness!! I DO love a good coat of paint!! Fab - u - lous!!

  • 10 years ago

    I love it. I love all your chairs!

  • 10 years ago

    As always, I have chair envy. Great job!

  • 10 years ago

    Oh my heavens, you and Bee make me green with envy. I stopped at Finders Keepers today and right inside the door was a fabulous French Provincial chair. There was no price anywhere. I patiently waited in line only to find out that it was just sold. I was so disappointed. It was a beauty.

  • 10 years ago

    Fantastic--- and LOVE color!

  • 10 years ago

    Thank you for the link to the welt cord you use.

    Very interesting seat construction.

    That's a nice pic of the underneath showing the old fabric & welt.
    It brings me to another question. Notice how they used black thread on the welting instead of ivory? I've seen this unexpected use of thread color before...the thread used on my navy chair welting was white or tan. Is there any reason why welting thread would be an "off" color?

    Side note: Was that picture (seat flipped upside down) taken on top of Luna Pearl (aka: Bianco Sardo) granite? I've got that granite in my kitchen & like it a lot : )

  • 10 years ago

    Hi again! Actually, in this case, if you scroll up and look at the original fabric, the background is black, so the black thread makes sense, although where I took the pic, there wasn't a lot of the black fabric showing.

    This is embarrassing, but that 'granite' is Deer Isle laminate! I re-did the kitchen in the early 90's on a budget. At the kitchen and bath store where we designed it, I laid a sample of that on a Deer Isle granite counter top, and you couldn't tell the difference between the sample and the actual granite, so I went with it. It's held up so well that I have never had to change it. There's a Deer Isle in Maine, so that sealed the deal!

  • 10 years ago

    M3D--you may have answered this at some point so please excuse me asking if you have....do you use a brush or sprayer...if sprayer, can you recommend a brand? Thanks! Just love what you do with these old chairs...I'm inspired to try it! Thanks!

  • 10 years ago

    Joanie, No sprayer, just a very good Purdy brush. I have found that a good paint brush is a small, but valuable investment.

    After I finish this style chair, however, I MAY invest in a sprayer, since I have three more of them!

    Beekeeperswife mentioned that she had one, but I don't think she's tried it yet. I'd like to know which brand and model her hubby bought her!

  • 10 years ago

    Such a yummy color!!! Could you share the paint code? Thanks.

  • 10 years ago

    Darn, rafor!!

    I just grabbed my little jar, and part of the label is covered with drips. If you want to email me your name and address, I'll put some on a piece of paper and send it to you. Then you could take it to your nearest Lowes and have them match it.

    This is an Olympic paint sample, and I must say that I am impressed with how 'strong' it is on the chair. I couldn't budge it with a finger nail when I saw a tiny drip on the chair; I had to sand it down.

  • 10 years ago

    I've been so busy, I missed this!!!

    That is gorgeous!!! This is the only thing I've ever turned around so fast. Ask my dh, and he can tell you about all the furniture that is in the garage waiting for new life!

    I primed a piece of my Bali Hai furniture yesterday with hopes of getting to take the new sprayer out for a test run, but nope. Didn't get to it. Ugh.

    The paint sprayer is from Harbor Freight, my dh did a lot of research before buying it for me. I just wanted the Wagner Flexio that is new on the market, and getting great reviews. Now I have this compressor with wheels and a sprayer....much more complicated than I envisioned. But, hopefully when I use it, I will love it!

    (PS, my chairs are now in my office where they don't feel "odd" to me, they are out of the dining room)

  • 10 years ago

    Love it! I wish I could find some chairs with character to go in our office!