In the Beginning

If anyone has read the 'About Us' page of this blog, they would know that I had posted some craft pictures on my Facebook, which Maggie had seen and liked enough to ask me to join her in a blogging partnership. It wasn't a lot of pictures-- I was a novice (still am) but I had tackled my first big project and was so proud of it, I posted it up. And believe me, this was a big deal for me. I had NEVER been considered handy or creative, and for good reason.

But I loved to be a little off kilter (not too much) once in a while. I started to get more into design and palettes (thanks to internet) and was extremely jealous of all the DIYers out there who could make beautiful, functional things for less.

I thought I would try it out.

I have a blue/white/gold theme going on in my room (for the most part) and I was sort of cheaping out on getting a new desk chair. My parents collect stuff because they are also on the cheap side and we had a bunch of ugly dining chairs from way back in the 1980's or early 1990's that weren't really going away. I have to say, I'm the opposite. I periodically purge what I don't use or don't like.

But as we had a whole bunch of chairs, I thought it would be okay if I took just one and changed it up. And if something went horribly wrong, I had another 8 chairs of the same thing to start over. And it's not like we actually used these chairs anymore anyway.

Evenings like this are right for the crafting on the balcony. Also, my Dad would be really mad if I was sanding indoors.

 It was the summer/fall and it was still warm enough to sit outside in the evenings with a jacket, so I purchased a pack of sandpaper from the dollar store and got to work. The chair, as you can see, was a strange pine-looking wood with an awful orangey shellack. After unscrewing the blue seat from the frame (new skill #1!), I sanded every inch of that darn shellacky mess (new skill #2!)

Before: I don't know of a wood that is naturally orange

The sanding took a couple evenings to finish up. I wanted to make sure that darn shellack was gone. And.. this may not come as a surprise to you and may even be common sense (which doesn't come naturally to me), but you should wear gloves or something when you're using sandpaper.. I didn't have any fingerprints for about a week.

After the sanding came the painting (new skill #3!). I went into Home Depot (by myself, for the first time. I know, sad right?) and got plain white house paint (Um... new skill #4?). After a couple coats, I sanded it a little (to look distressed) and then put some spray varnish. After, the chair looked like this:

I decided not to do anything to the seat before I screwed it back on (I didn't want to get carried away, of course). But I am totally happy with the result. I use the back of the chair to hang all of my scarves, so it has two functions!

The mantra here at the Golden Means is "Form, Function and Creativity" and it's something that I think really holds true in everything we do. Success for an easy first project and I was hooked, absolutely, 100%.

All the scarves, on display!