My Marie Antoinette Inspired Chair Makeover

For months I have used this chair at my desk...

I bought it for $5 off of Craigslist with the intention of painting it. Finally, one night, I decided to dive into the project. First, I mixed my own shade of pink with acrylic paints I had laying around the house. Then I watered it down and dry brushed it on. (For those who aren't familiar, dry brushing means wiping most of the paint off of the brush. Once I was done it looked like this....

Next, I did another layer of dry brushing with a watered down version Martha's Rainwater paint that I am using for kitchen redo.

At this point, I was frightened. I had this picture in my head but this wasn't it. I knew I wasn't done but I couldn't stop thinking of cotton candy, mermaids, and the movie Marie Antoinette. I wasn't sure I liked that. When I went to bed that night I planned on starting over the next day but in the morning I decided to finish what I had started since I wouldn't be wasting anything other than my time if I didn't like it.

So the next day I carried on with Plan A by applying yet another layer of dry brushed, watered down paint. This time I used Glidden's paint right off the shelf with no tint added.  

By this point I think my hubby thought I was crazy (I know, what else is knew!) but I continued on with glazing. I rubbed on Minwax's Dark Walnut stain and wiped most of it off. Then I sanded it lightly to give it a distressed finish.

After, I was done painting the wood I moved onto the caning. For this I used a sample of Valspar's Lincoln Black that I had laying around. By this point I was clinging to the idea of Marie Antoinette. I always loved the decor and fashion in that movie so why not stick with it.

Once I was done painting, glazing, and sanding I had one more step. I needed to cover the bottom of the legs where they had been chewed by the previous owner's puppy. This wasn't something that wood putty was going to fix so I decided to cover them with fabric. The fabric I used was a soft pink corduroy that I hot glued to the chair and then reinforced with black upholstery tacks. My tacks are FAR from perfect but I did it last night at 11:30 and was frustrated by the whole process. Normally I would have used needle nose plies to hold the tack while I used the mallet it to hammer it in but I couldn't find needle nose pliers. Typical. I did my best and here is the end result.

Overall, it's good enough for me. It's not perfect but neither am I. We'll make great friends. Maybe someday I'll fix the tacks or maybe I won't. Who knows!

I'm linking this over to Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday. Have a great weekend!