Cheetah Print Chairs

 

I am so darn excited!  Giving myself a huge pat on the back right now.  I bought these two channel back chairs last spring to reupholster for my newly designed office/library.  Then got side tracked.  Big time.  After reupholstering the big red chair for my seester, I wasn’t sure I had it in me to tackle these.  However, low budget and needing more room in my work shop lit a fire under me to get these babies DONE!  I have to admit that I do love these cheetah print chairs!

 

I found these fab chairs on-line and snatched them up.  I had never repurposed a channel back chair before so much research was needed.  I immediately started the hunt for material to recover the chairs.  A good friend of mine recently moved into a house and had these totally AWESOME wingback chairs made for her dining room.  They are this absolutely gorgeous peacock / teal green velvet.  So. In. Love.  I had to have something like that.  Except that finding  a material that fit my criteria AND was in my price range proved to be impossible.  I decided to go more neutral, using that color on the wall, since I wanted this room to be warm and cozy anyway. I wanted a warmer, darker neutral that wasn’t a solid black or brown, but was neutral enough to go with almost any color.  I ended up with a cheetah print.

 

Gold is back “in” so the wood part of the chairs would be gold.  I lightly sanded the legs and arms then taped up any of the upholstery batting that was showing so that I could paint them with my new favorite gold paint.

 

TA DA!!!  This paint is seriously the bomb.  It is a true gold with out being blinding. It goes on with even, perfect strokes – no crazy lines that you get with other spray paints!  AND usually it covers almost everything with one even coat! For reals! Dry time?  Super fast.

Once the chair was dry, I “antiqued” the gold slightly with a black glaze to hid all the imperfections in the wood. Had I left it shiny gold I would have sanded and filled all of the dents and dings in the wood for a more perfect finish.

 

I have to admit that this project had some sewing involved.  Each channel had to be sewn together and then “stuffed” with the channel batting.  I was lucky that all of the batting was in pristine condition so I was able to use the old batting.  Then the side arm material was sewn to the back channels. If I am honest this was why I procrastinated for so long.  Eeekkkk!  Just the thought of it scared me.  But guess what?  It was do dang easy it was ridiculous.  Once the sewing was done it went back together so fast it was crazy! It looks awesome.  Even the Hubs, who is kind of jaded from all of my projects over the years, said that he was impressed!  Woo Hoo!

 

Here is the side detail.  I may have gone crazy with the gimp embellishments, but I love the black against the cheetah!  As you can see the wood on the wings is a little battered, but I am good with that.  You don’t notice it that much in person and I like that it has a little patina and wear to it.

 

Here it is again…. I can’t wait to get started on the library/ office so these beauties have a good home!  Oh, yeah.. that project got put on the back burner too… oops!

 

Until next time…..