Take A Seat

It is a rare occurrence, but when it happens, it is absolutely magical. It's the love at first sight that you dream of since you were a child and leaves you breathless once you find it.

The moment when all the searching and dreaming can stop because you have found exactly what you have been looking for.

These are the chairs that I finally found after trolling through numerous thrift stores in many towns for many years.

Kinda takes your breath away, right?

Well, maybe not just yet, this is the before picture.

When I first found these beauties I had it set in my mind that I wanted the metal frames to be spray painted copper. Many people told me that this was not the best choice because nothing in my home was that color.

So after spraying a couple of rocks copper and using them as a center piece on my dining table, I was satisfied that I had silenced the critics.

I set to work on the first chair, wrapping the wicker in Saran wrap, roughing up the metal with sandpaper, spraying a heavy duty primer, and finally a coat of copper.

I took a step back to view my masterpiece.

There is nothing worse than that awful moment when you realize that your critics were spot on. And that you now have a copper balcony.

Back to the drawing board, this time with the suggestions of my friends and family being considered.

The consensus was that a gun metal grey would be the perfect color for these nearly perfect chairs.

Knowing that I had to re-sand the metal so that the spray paint would have something to stick to made me shudder. That had definitely been the worse part of round one (aside from realizing that the chair looked utterly ridiculous).

But let's keep in mind that this was not my first rodeo. It was my second. And this cowgirl had learned a thing or two.

One trip to Home Depot later and I had in my possession a Black and Decker Mouse Sander and Polisher and a new can of spray paint. Also in my possession, two phone numbers from two super sexy carpenters. Boys that can build are the best.

I got to work sanding down the unfortunate paint job only to discover that by removing the copper paint, the white primer, and the original red paint I had uncovered a beautiful shade of silver metal.

Jackpot.

Who needs new paint when the original is perfection? Not me.

But after four hours of sanding my tune changed from not me, to why me?

A house full of dust, a nose full of grey boogers, arms that continued to shake even after the Mouse had been unplugged, and hands that looked like that of a corpse ended up being well worth it.

Ta daaaaa!

Everything I had ever hoped for.

They are not perfect, but hey, neither am I. Just kidding.

Just kidding.

With another project completed it's time to put my feet up and give some cute carpenters a call.

A Black and Decker sander is great, but a hot carpenter to operate it is the best.