Going backwards--my second Chalk Paint piece (plus some exciting news!)

Wow, so many months since my last real post! Our little apartment cramps my style more than a bit when it comes to hoarding furniture and working on projects bit by bit. There may or may not be flecks of paint on the walls, carpet and maaaaaybe curtains from my most recent project (but they are tiny flecks, promise!)  We even had to dismantle my green table and push it under the bed as soon as we moved in because there is no room for it! Shameful, I know.

Today I'm actually going to post pictures of my second ever chalk paint project---an Ethan Allen chair that I picked up at a garage sale for I believe $35. I kinda felt like the guy was ripping me off, since the chair was ugly, beat up and the cushions were disgusting. The foam was rotting away and the design was very outdated, but what drew me to the chair was how very solid it was. My mom kept telling me how good a brand Ethan Allen is, so I got the owner down to $35 and lugged it home. I had a little repair to do to the net-like wire-things that hold the seat cushion in place (excuse my sophisticated jargon there) which I expertly rigged with some thingamajigs from Home Depot, but once that was done I got to painting!

 This is the original state---beautiful wood but very very dark and dated looking. The color of the wood wasn't displeasing per se, but with the styling of the chair I didn't know how to update the look while leaving the wood. Enter the chalk paint!

I slapped on a couple layers of Duck Egg blue, distressed to my heart's content, and then wiped on a layer of clear wax. Now for the cushions---those were a potential problem, as I do not sew. Worse, the foam from the previous cushions had degraded to a point that it was gross and messy and not salvageable. I had picked up a bolt of fabric from another garage sale that I thought looked good with the Duck Egg blue, and when my godmother (and partner in crime) spotted the cloth draped over the old cushions, she offered to have them remade for me as my Christmas gift! It was a most generous offer for which I am so grateful, because without her I would have left that cloth tucked over the old cushions indefinitely :P  They turned out so well, and my godmother not only had the foam replaced but she also had her seamstress add piping to the edges, which looks quite fancy!

 Pictures really just don't do justice to these chalk paint colors, and since my apartment doesn't receive good light at any point of the day (and I can't drag these pieces 4 flights down and outside either) the photos are especially disappointing. Know that I am embarrassed for the quality of them but find no better alternatives. Hopefully you can still get a feel for the piece.

I'm also pretty thrilled with our new jute rug

The doberman pillow in this picture is one my mother made using a photo of our Broo! 

Judging by the amount of dog hair I find on this chair, this is what the stinker does when we're not home and have otherwise physically barred him from the couch. He does look preeeeetty cute in it though! :)

I have two more completed projects to share sometime soon, so look for those! I even branched out from chalk paint *gasp* so I'll show you how that went too.

One last thing---since my last post, the bf and I got ENGAGED! So now I have to call him fiancé and wear this absolutely perfect ring  :D

<3

For a year I wore on my ring finger a simple silver knot the bf fiancé had gotten me as a sign of his commitment. He always told me he wanted to wait to get engaged until he could buy me the ring I deserved--boy did he deliver on that!!