having a bad chair day?

what a fun workshop today…four lovely students brought challenging chairs to make-over.  here are the befores:

they chose a paint finish to learn and apply that suited their style and played up the details of their particular piece, and got right to work.  after lunch (and giving the paint time to dry), each waxed and buffed her chair frame, and then chose a stencil and fabric combo, nailing down the fabric-painting process perfectly after just a short tutorial…did i mention this was a gifted class?

here, karen uses the double-overlay roundabout, a favorite from cynthia davis’s wallovers line:

(did i also mention how much i love our new stencils?  these are just a few of what we have to offer…)

everyone there was just wonderful…i love my students!  these adorable sisters were such a treat to get to know.  linda (on the left) won the prize for student traveling farthest, hailing from windsor, ontario. {yes, with her chair.}  she and diane (on the right) have a whole weekend of painting planned.

our special guest speaker arrived mid-afternoon…my darling friend, the covered-up-in-clever lauren anderson stone (she of gathering moss and crazy upholstery skills) stopped in to instruct the group on finishing up their chair seats with professional polish.  power tools were involved, as was a staple gun, but it was mainly lauren’s expertise and experience that got the job done.

finally, the almost-afters, and the details:

diane chose gray washed over with white, and dark- and gilt-wax accents.

linda’s caned-back beauty got new life with blues, reds, dark wax, and pewter touches.

debbie used an antique white paint to create texture, and dark wax to highlight the details on her chair, while karen employed a rustic finish in a happy green with dark wax, which contrasted perfectly with her modern stencil choice and played up the circular motifs on her piece.

a job well done by everyone!  mrs. jones has put all four on the honor roll.