Decayed Elegance: A Boring, Scratched Ordinary Chair Becomes an Art Piece

Decayed Elegance / Decorative Painting / French Style / Hand Painted Art Furniture / Handpainted Furniture / Upcycling Furniture
Chair Back

This chair has been sitting in our stash forever, in fact we have had it for so long that I have no idea where it came from or how much we paid for it.  I liked the lines of the chair, the caned seat and the interesting splat on the back of the chair but the finish was dark, badly scratched and dated.  So, it was time for the chair to earn its keep.  We decided to do a fairly heavy distressing technique with some nice, artful painting on top.

I started by underpainting the chair in some various colors that I thought would look nice peeking through the green body color.

Chair Before

Then, I applied chapstick to create the chippy paint technique as outlined in this distressing tutorial. Next I painted the chair a lovely toned green and sanded in strategic areas revealing some of the underpainted colors and a happy accident happened.  I ended up dragging some of the chapstick around the chair and I got a sort of crackling effect that further heightened the look of age.

Chair being distressed

Once the chair was painted and distressed it was time to add the elegance.  Cathy and I decided that we would use birds, flowers and ribbons to heighten the French look of the piece and this is what evolved.

Chair in Hall

Chair in Hall 2

Chair Back

Distressed and Painted Chair Back

We love it so much that we have decided to keep it, at least for the time being.  In fact, I like the design and the colors so much that I have decided to use it on one of our Decayed Elegance chalkboards.  Look for that in the future.  Once again, it is the juxtaposition of the distressed finish and the art painting that creates a chair that defines our style, Decayed Elegance.  Thanks for visiting.

Until next time,

Paul

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