beautiful bright bentwood

My bargain $20 Bentwood is now ready to make our bedroom it's home, after two coats of paint and plenty of sanding and priming! Here is the BEFORE. I even like it in white..

I'm glad I'm now able to tick this project off my 'to do' list. It brightens up the bedroom and works in well with the Bespoke Press print.

a revamped bentwood - from drab to (almost) fab!

I decided to get my act together this weekend and finally do something about my Bentwood chair....4 months after I first mentioned it! I'm very good at getting inspired, not so good at finishing a job. I get lazy and unmotivated. Maybe it's that 'nesting' pregnancy thing but it had been bugging me that I seem to be good at starting projects but not finishing them. So with some free time on the weekend, I got cracking.

Here's what the chair originally looked like. I had done some sanding months ago here (told you I'm slack!) so this is what I was left to work with.

First step: sanding. I hate the prep work associated with painting! I'm so impatient. 

Once the sanding had been done (which I gotta say I did a pretty good job!), it was time to add 2 coats of primer. I used British Paints 'all in one' sealer/primer/undercoat.

Two coats of primer and I'm ready to paint the first coat of my chosen colour which I blogged about here. I find it really hard to pick paint colours (am I the only one?) but in the end, I went with Taubman's Solar Burst. It's not a sunny yellow, more of a citrus lemon/lime colour which at first I wasn't sure about but now I'm loving it.

Ta-da! After 1 coat of Solar Burst the chair is almost ready to rock and roll!

L is making the chair a new seat cover (from an old laundry door) which I have to prime, clamp on then paint 1 coat. 1 more coat all over and it will be ready to grace our bedroom with its presence! I can't tell you how good I feel for achieving something this weekend...woo hoo :)

a bentwood work in progress

This is how far I got on my Bentwood. Really rather pathetic, right?! L took the seat off for me and gave me some bench space in the shed to work on it (which is a small miracle in itself. Never mess with a man's shed...or so I have learnt!). The sanding, which I started last weekend, is going to take a while, then I have to apply primer a couple of times, then the colour which I chose here. Thanks to you guys for helping me decide what to do with it. Now I just have to get cracking on it and stop procrastinating! Yeah! Have a great weekend x

mellow yellow bentwood

I really hate picking paint colours. I'm scared I'll get it completely wrong and eventhough you can paint over, who wants to spend more time painting? Painting is fun for the first 5 minutes, then it sucks. My husband and I painted our home (with help from family), and a couple of years later repainted our bedroom in one weekend. Both times I wished we'd had the money to pay someone to do it. But, it doesn't quite suck painting a chair, that's fun! I suppose if I get the colour wrong I can paint over the Bentwood quite easily. I quite fancy a slick black Bentwood anyway as I love everything black (I want black walls - L.O.V.E).

I've chosen Taubman's Solar Burst - what do you think? I know the actual colour will differ from how it displays online but I have tried to match it as much as possible with the example here. Now that I've put it out there I've got to make sure I start this project this weekend!

how to revamp a Bentwood

I have always had a thing for op-shopping, whether it be for clothes and shoes or furniture as I now seem to be obsessed with (although I can never usually find the time for op-shopping or revamping! Is it just me who has this problem?). It must have been one of those lucky days that I decided to check out a junk shop on my way home one day - and sitting outside was this bentwood chair! I knew I had to have it. It was $25 but I got it for $20 - bargain! Now my dilemma is how to revamp it...

I have a few ideas. Here's what I'm thinking (after sanding, and replacing the awful seat):

1. Leave the chair in it's original colour - like this one

2. Paint the chair white, perhaps using Porter's Paints Milk paint (and if I get creative, I'd like to create a cushion insert for the seat using a nice fabric) - like this one here and here

3. Paint the chair a canary yellow - like this one

What do you think? What would you do if you owned this Bentwood?

I look at it every day as it sits in the corner of our bedroom, crying out for me to do something to it, so I'm hoping to for some Monday inspiration..

Lizzy on Bentwood on 'Desire to Inspire'

My girl Lizzy is a star already - she featured on Desire to Inspire's weekly pets on furniture post! Here she is...on my Bentwood chair which I picked up for $20 (it's the chair in my profile pic). It needs a lot of TLC, and so does Lizzy.

(Ahem, I promise this blog won't all be about Lizzy but then again...that's not such a bad thing!).