Little Red Ridinghoold Chair

When I first laid eyes on this little cutie, I was not impressed.  She was in quite the state.  Patchy poo-brown paint, a broken seat from that time chunky Aunt Mildred tried to sit on her, and the most tacky and icky plastic floral seat cover I've ever touched.  I actually cringed and held my breath while I removed it for fear I would need to be put in quarantine. 

 

 
But, ta-da!  How smouldering does she look now?  Ready to strut around on the catwalks of Europe I think.  ;)

 
In all seriousness though, she was a family heirloom belonging to Mr. Chuckle's sister who was keen to keep her in the family, but perhaps just update her to a more fashionable standard.  Her intentions were to use her in a nautical-themed room in her beautiful new house. 

 
We decided on a bright red, as she will be placed in between some navy blue curtains and thought red would pop nicely.

I used a shade of red called 'amazing' which I diy'd up into chalk paint.  I did something new here for the first time.  I had just purchased a super cute little paint sprayer called CRITTER which uses 500ml mason jars to hold the paint.  

 
The CRITTER is a siphon based system which retails for about $50 and connects to an air compressor.  And for the first time, I SPRAYED a piece of furniture.  It turned out great, and I can't believe how much quicker it was to apply the paint. All those little curves and nooks and recessed bits would have taken forever to do with a brush, and it would have been hard to avoid drips. 

 
I will write up a review on CRITTER at some point, but I feel I need to use it a few more times before I do so.  It was great on this little lady, but I need to see how it performs on a larger piece of furniture.

 
DIY chalk paint dries quite sandpapery, so I lightly smoothed the finish out with some sand paper before applying clear wax and highlighted with just a few dabs of dark.

 
I also needed to replace the seat too.  I cut a new piece of board and also cut a new piece of foam to fit.  I finished with this cute anchor patterned upholstery fabric.  I have only reupholstered chairs a couple of times before, and a I do not claim to be a pro, so all you critics looking at my corners and 'tsking' under your breath, well, just pipe-it-down!  ;)

 
At first I wanted the fabric to be blue, red or white, or any combo of those, but I think the gray is nice in that it still keeps with the nautical theme, but does so in a more contemporary way.  Chuckle's sister liked it too.

I have searched high and low for my before picture, but so for, I cant find it anywhere.  I hate when that happens, so far now, you will need to use your imagination. 

 
This is a picture of the chair after I sprayed a couple of coats. And below is the CRITTER sprayer hanging from my compressor, it is such a cute sprayer and has a real 'homemade' look to it with the mason jar. 

 

It does give a crazy amount of overspray though, you NEED to wear protective gear on your eyes and mouth, and we also created a DIY spray booth using plastic drop cloths.

 
The cute fabric in the store.

 
And shopping for the foam.  Foam is expensive!