3 Sitting Pretty

A few months ago, I rehabbed a little breakfast table from this…



Into this…



I absolutely loved him in his newly polished state. He was handsome. He was functional. He was $20 start to finish (click here for more on his stint in rehab). He was perfect…and I thought I had absolutely no room for him in my house. Do I give him away? Do I post on Craigslist? But before I could decide his fate, I kicked off a full blown kitchen remodel. While construction dust was flying, this little table became an integral part of my living room-turned-kitchen setup.



But with my microwave securely mounted in my new kitchen. This table was once again left without a home…until I scooted his little legs into my kitchen and realized that he not only actually fit in my breakfast nook but looked pretty stinkin’ good to boot!



Thus, like most of my projects, a new DIY undertaking jumped right into my lap. I needed chairs. Pronto.

I looked high—thrift stores & yard sales…I looked low—curbside trash piles & questionable warehouses in questionable parts of town…but no chairs. Either too expensive, too beaten up or just too plain ugly. So what does every good DIY-er do when she gets down on her luck? She calls Mom. And what do you know? Mom had a couple of chairs that Dad couldn’t stand to look at for one more second. Score!

Now, some of you are going to curl your lip at the sight of these before photos…



Yes, that is a carved flower on the back…

And yes, that fabric is way too red for my neutral kitchen…



But trust me on this one. Fabric can be changed. So off I went to scout pretty patterns. I hunted stripes. Scoured polka dots. Dug threw piles of geometric prints but nothing felt right. Nothing until this little swatch popped into my line of sight.



I know. Some of you are questioning whether I am 26 or 76 after this pick, but hear me out. There was no getting around that these chairs were already tattooed with a permanent flower across their back (think furniture tramp stamp) and the colors in the fabric were perfect for my kitchen. So why not channel my inner granny and pump up the girly-ness of these twins with a little floral fabric?



They are shabby. They are chic. And while gearing up for a home project packed with sanding and sawing, I feel pretty sitting in them. And whatever it takes to make this girl feel pretty in paint clothes and ponytail is fine by me.