Pam and Thom James of DIY Inspired Facebook share an inspiring DIY French Rounded Back Chairs Makeover
Here’s what she had to say about these chairs that were set for disposal at her church rummage sale:
“My husband is disabled and I serve as his caretaker; therefore we enjoy doing DIY projects on his good days. Recently I came across four French Round-backed chairs which hadn’t sold at our Church Rummage Sale that had been taken back out to be discarded – I asked permission if I could take them and was granted this request.”
After sanding them down we discovered that the wood would not accept a stain; we have run into this before with production made furniture; for small parts such as feet of sofas and such we paint or do faux finishes instead. After some experimentation we decided to create a caramel finish with glazing that echoes some antiques in our dining room as well as the caramel hue in our wool area rug.
The dining room features colors of wheat-gold, brick red and bits of blue and olive, which doesn’t quite form a split complementary scheme but still works because these accent colors are very small accent pieces. I found an almost-reverse area rug tapestry along with caramel gimp to complete this space.
Due to starting over several times to achieve our desired effect and accommodating for my husband’s sick days, the project took three months or so.”
Pam mentioned that the pictures don’t do justice to how bad the conditions were – all nap was worn away from the tapestry, with threadbare spots ready to break apart any moment – not to mention how dirty they were!
How They Did It
The James’ started by sanding, priming, and applying two coats of primer before spray painting four Burlap spray coats using 800 grit wet/dry sandpaper in between coats. Next they used purchased glazing compound as glaze with microfiber cloth rags wiped clean between glaze applications; finally Pam painted additional depth by painting each of the slashes with fine brush to add dimension; some areas feature some subtle flyspecking giving character. Three matte poly finishes were then applied before buffing with tinted wax.
Read my article for information on when and how to use primer when conducting DIY painting projects and furniture makeovers.
