I bought this "granny" chair I have so aptly named it at my local op shop haunt near 5 months ago now. It had been sitting in my storage area under the house waiting patiently for a makeover. It took me a little time to get around to it but one sunny autumn day I pulled it out, dusted it off and started taking it apart.

After taking the cushions off and finding some very stale pretzels hidden away underneath I then undid a few bolts and took the spring frame off the wooden base. It was a fairly easy dismantle which is always good. Now I made a pretty bad mistake in regards to painting this frame, which it was my fault completely. I was short on time and couldn't be bothered sanding the wooden frame down in preparation for painting. This is painting 101 - ALWAYS sand back any type of wood before sanding. I have said it myself on this blog, it is a very important step one which should not be overlooked and Itook the lazy path and it ended up making more work for me in the long run. Silly me!

The wooden base had a shiny finish on the wood so that should of sent alarm bells ringing in my head but I forged ahead and painted it. Then I went to pick it up the next day and found that the paint peeled off under my touch. Eh... we have a problem! The paint would not adhere properly to a unsanded, glossy surface - which if I read the instructions on the can promptly urged to sand any glossy or shiny surfaces on wooden areas ready for preparation! So hubby kindly stepped in and sanded off all the paint and then prepped the surface ready for another coat of paint. Never ever think you will get away with not sanding! Because it will come back and bite you in the you know where!

I used Rust-Oleum's Gloss Black Universal Spray paint to do this chair. I have been using this product for a while now and just LOVE it.

The easy part of the whole project was done and now I had to turn my attention to re-upholstering the cushions for the chair. If I knew now what I was in for with this I probably wouldn't of taken it on. It was quite a lengthy and time consuming process to fit and sew new covers for the cushions. I also made my own black piping for the cushions and added around the edges to act as a outline to the whole piece like eye liner does to an eye.

I am not going to sit down and go through the entire process on how I made the slipcovers I hope to write a bit of an Ebook one day on how to do this properly as this would become an extrememly long post if I did. A pointer though would be to use the old covers as a template by unpicking the seams on the cover and laying it out on your chosen piece of material. I did this with the back cushion as it was a abnormal shape and I wanted to get the fit right on it.

I would suggest reading as many tutorials, posts and videos on re-upholstering chairs and cushions and practice, practice, practice. My first project slipcovering my wing back chairs gave me the confidence to move onto other projects, however in hind sight I should of started off with something smaller like this chair or even a set of bar stools. Go small before going big! I seem to have done it in reverse though!

The fit of the covers turned out pretty good and I am really happy with the fabric that I chose. The black piping finishes the whole seat of nicely I think. I saw another two of these chairs at my local op shop last week and I was SO very tempted to pick them up... but my tired mummy brain spoke louder than my bargain brain so I walked past them. I think I will be going on a bit of furniture reno vacation for a few months to slow down a bit because life has been so hectic. I feel like I haven't had time to take a breathe and just be myself.

The chair didn't grace our lounge room for very long as it was up and sold within a few weeks. The person who bought this piece had actually bought a few previous pieces of furniture I had done up and she said I needed to stop posting things to sell because she can't resist buying them!