French Farmhouse Chair

When you start out life as a 70’s jewel-tone side chair, its pretty sweet to get reimagined as a French Farmhouse Chair.

This is such a fun style chair to refinish. It has such good bones, solid wood frame, cute legs, great carved details, caned inserts. Chairs like this are often overlooked because they scream ‘out of date’ and 70’s vibe. But its is exactly these details that can be highlighted for a totally new look. Actually, this newly updated chair can swing in several directions. It’s perfect for a French country look or a fabulous farmhouse setting.

This is the first chair I have upholstered in over 2 years! Wow, how time flies. It has been a busy 2 years, but I’m so happy to finally have my she shop, aka, workshop up and running. This chair was the perfect piece to start out with, considering what a simple job it would be. Little did I know just how easy it would be. As I started stripping the chair I realized, the seat unscrewed from the bottom of the frame. This means, the seat can be covered just as you would a dinning room chair! Meaning, no cuts around the arms or the chair back!!! If you have done any amount of upholstery work, you know that these cuts can be a little tricky. And being that I am so out of practice, how nice to avoid them on this first piece!

Once the chair was stripped, I gave it a couple of coats of Annie Sloan Old White paint. Then I hand lined the carved details with Annie Sloan Napoleonic Blue paint and finished it off with Artisan Enhancements Clear Finish.

I knew exactly the fabric I wanted to use. It’s a grain sack style fabric that has become very popular in the last few years. I ordered mine from Vintage Market & Design. There are several color options and stripe designs. I chose 2 designs with varying stripe width patterns. I wanted to be able to use the 2 different fabrics on the same chair. I think that just adds a little more interest to the piece. I did play around a bit with the placement of the fabrics and the stripe designs, but ended up with a clean and simple single stripe on the back of the chair, which is very reminiscent of grain sack style, and the multi-stripe fabric for the seat.

It actually took me the longest to sort out the finishing details for this chair. I really wanted to add a flirty little skirt or ruffle to the front of the chair and I wanted to emphasis the blue. So I made up a pleated little ruffle out of denim and made double welt cord to match. The color and fabric just weren’t working. I knew I had some of this ribbon trim that would be perfect! But it is also my most expensive trim and I have very little of it left. It really was the perfect choice, so I went with it. Maybe some day I’ll find more of it and at a discount!!!

Finally I had to decide on the trim to go around the arms and chair back. I made some double welt from the same fabric as the chair seat, but that didn’t look right either. Finally I found this blue gimp in my stash and it worked beautifully with the ribbon trim.

So that’s the story of this sweet chair’s makeover. She is transformed from jewel-toned 70’s to French Farmhouse and she is ready to start over her new life. If you are interested in her, please let me know. She is available for purchase. SOLD!