Little Cutie

A while back, my brother asked me if I would refurbish a child's rocking chair for him. The chair belonged to a friend of his and definitely needed a bit of TLC. I agreed to do the job with no earthly idea of just what was needed. When he brought the chair to me, I could see that he was right in assuming that it desperately required a good bit of attention. It was a cute little chair, though, and immediately wheels started turning in the head as to just what could be done to make it desirable once again.

First, it needed cleaning since he had it in his shed for a while. I took the hose and scrub brush to it. This also removed most of the scratched finish that was on the surface. I had asked if I could paint the chair and he said do whatever I wanted to make it nice again. So I painted a base coat of white. Once this was dry, I stuck the chair in the corner of the living room and sort of forgot about it. Spring had come and planting the garden demanded my full attention. The chair sat in the corner for a good three weeks, when my brother reminded me about it. Oh my! It had completely slipped my mind!

My brother told me that his friend had two little girls so that was a good guideline for a design. Girly! Let the fun begin! I pulled out the chair, paints and brushes and set to work. What a nice way to start my day! I decided to paint stylized roses on the back slats and then just let the chair show me what to do next. With a girly color scheme of hot pink, lime green and canary yellow, my paint brush squiggled out a design that I think is quite appealing. After finishing this part, I did a wash of golden-brown over the entire chair. This was to give it that "aged" look and to also tone down the starkness of the white. I figure that the smudginess of the wash would also help disguise any fingerprints from grimy little hands. Children's hands are always smeary with candy, mud, squished bugs, strawberries or ice cream so a piece of furniture that can camouflage that is always welcome.

With paint job complete, I rewove the seat. I had some rush fiber left from something I did several years ago. Keeping my fingers crossed that it would be enough, I started work. This part took the longest but this style seating adds a lot of charm to the appearance of the chair. Finally, it is a cute little chair again! I am pleased at how it turned out and I do hope the little girls enjoy using the chair. I also hope the Mommy loves how her little chair has been refurbished!