This chair has been in Stephanie's family for generations — she was rocked to sleep in it as a baby, and so was her granddad! She wanted to keep it around as a treasured piece of family history, but she also wanted to give it a little update — the result? A lovely chair with a fabulous new look, ready to rock the next generation… Stephanie's new baby!
Here's Stephanie's story:
Having no previous experience with upholstery I was a little nervous about tearing into something so old, but ultimately had a great time redesigning and reupholstering it for our little boy or girl. I never, EVER would have thought that I'd be painting the wood blue, but my love for stripping and staining wood has had to be put on hold during pregnancy, and after getting various fabric swatches picked out… blue ended up being our final decision. I was hoping to make something that would look cute for either a boy or a girl, but also not look too "juvenile" in our living room, being that we are in a tiny apartment and there's just not enough space for it in the bedroom/nursery.
The stool was made for me by my grandfather when I was little. He had originally painted it white and stenciled some flowers on it, but in middle school I repainted it… quite hideously. Hopefully I've redeemed myself by deciding to upholster it, making it into this little furry thing. I do think having the furry stool to go with the rocking chair creates the overall more contemporary look I was hoping for.
Materials used:
• Ikat fabric is "Khanjali Glacier" by Robert Allen / Decorative Fabrics Direct
• Chevron fabric (on back of chair) is "Village Blue on Natural" by Premier Prints / FabricGuru
• Furry white clearance fabric! / Hancock Fabrics
• Valspar, blue latex paint (sample size!)
• Martha Stewart Faux Finishing Glaze (with a warm hue added, to knock-down the brightness of the pastel blue...)
Total cost: approximately $90
Thanks, Stephanie!
(Images: Stephanie McCloud)
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Beautiful! Nice job.
Wow, nice work! Can't believe it was your first time upholstering!
Adorable! Love the stool too. Rock that baby!
Not a fan of Chevron but the front side of the chair is fabulous!! Really nice color choices.
Great, but if it was me, I would have kept the wood.
^ Rude! It looks a helluva lot better than it did.
Growing up in the south,I swear every family I ever knew had one of these chairs! my mother painted ours gold and recovered it in green velvet! I can still hear the sound it made when rocking in it.I think it looks fabulous.
I was just saying I was sick of Ikat but that is really gorgeous. I'd love to see how it fits in with the rest of the room
Adorable! I love the fuzzy foot stool. Can you make me one, please?
It's an upgrade, but not my taste. I think it's the shabby chi...wood refinish that nixes it for me.
I think I liked the original better, but this make-over certainly makes it fit in better in a nursery.
Nice work!
The chair is cute - I definitely like it for a nursery. That said, the little furry ottoman? Just basically kills me dead. I LOVE it.
If something has value because it's been in the family for generations, wouldn't that be the LAST thing you'd want to "update"? The finish was not going to clash with the modern world; wood is a perennial. And the tone-on-tone floral showed a bit of heritage while being about as inoffensive as you could possibly hope for.
I'm a little sad that a genuine heirloom is now trying hard to be "of the moment" (2012: when ikat and chevrons peaked at the same time). And whereas the original piece showed a few hints of natural wear, the new distressing looks more like what you would find on a brand-new chair that wants to fool people into mistaking it for an antique.
It's well done for what it is, but I'm not on board with the idea that furniture has to be rendered "cute" because a baby will be near it. The chair was cute enough for the previous generations of babies.
I think it's a shame to paint over that pretty wood, even though the "after" is cute, and I love the furry ottoman. :)
Nice job! I think it looks great!
I would have kept the wood but I definitely would have changed the fabric. I don't think it's a big deal to want to update somtehing to suit your tastes. If you absolutely must keep it because it's an heirloom and it means something to you, maybe it's the memories of being in the chair rather than how the chair looks that would be what is important.
Hurray for keeping a family heirloom. I guess the remake is preferable to pitching it. I would have loved to see the Ikat with the unpainted wood. The painted wood kind of cheapens the whole deal for me and the foot stool... If you can't find something nice to say, don't say it at all. It brings up the question of why we need to make everything of the moment. For generations this chair has been unaltered. Now I guess your family tradition will become how much can we change this chair from generation to generation. An interesting idea. Certainly better than the landfill.
It looks lovely.
Love - Of course I am not of the school of "Leave the wood". If you don't like it, change it so you can keep it. If it's so important to keep the wood and you don't like it, give it away.
I'm with Bee for Brian and I do think the makeover is worse than the original.
The ottoman looks like a little sheep! I love it. Kids' rooms are great for experimenting with odd or whimsical pieces that might not complement the rest of the decor. Make it a visually and tactilely interesting wonderland!
Are people kidding??
This is gorgeous----how, how can you prefer the before? I'm sure it looks amazing in the nursery. Nice work!
Did anyone have "fuzzy footstools" in the future trends post? Because I think we're going to be seeing them!
http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2013/01/reader-diy-mongolian-lamb-stool.html
What @Pi said.
the stool is cute in a kid monster kind of way. But the after is, in my opinion, horrible :(. What a terrible thing to do to an heirloom piece of furniture. The "ageing" after the blue paint is the worst part in my opinion. It already had your ancestors legitmate markings on it. This is such a sad thing to do to such an important piece of furniture for you :(.
Although the rocker is a family heirloom, now it resides in your home and it needs to suit your style - and I'm glad it does. The furry footstool will welcome your feet during midnight feedings. In the future, you might change the finish and then your child after you - it's the continuity of the heirloom, not the look!
the before is hideous!
nice colorscheme.
Like the fabric! Would have preferred the old wood with it.
I like the look of the footstool, but I would worry about keeping it clean. Babies are (or at least mine was) messy. I had breastmilk and spit up splattered all over my rocking chair.
Painting over the wood is fine, and I like the color you chose -- but I do have a beef with the fact that she then "distressed" it to make it look old.
You had something that was genuinely old and beautiful before. If you think it needs an update, fine, but I think it's a real shame to try to combine the two. You end up with the worst of both worlds.
Please paint the "feet" on the ottoman black! It'll look like a little sheep. Love it.
It looks like a breath of fresh air. Warning, though....I reupholstered a foot stool and had to always remind people, "Shoes off!"
Lovely! ~rock on:)
...also, Congrats on your new little one...enjoy, it goes by so fast!
Actually, it wasn't beautiful. It was really beat. The don't-ever-paint-previously-stained-wood shtick is getting tiresome. Painted wood can later be refinished - there are people who perform this service if you don't want to do it yourself - at the time someone wants their hideous dark green rocker back.
I think it's adorable.
And all the sanctimonious people that are aghast she painted the wood, did you not read the intro paragraph?
"I never, EVER would have thought that I'd be painting the wood blue, but my love for stripping and staining wood has had to be put on hold during pregnancy, and after getting various fabric swatches picked out… blue ended up being our final decision."
Yeah,her baby should have taken the staining fumes for the wood brigade. Honestly.
Anyway, it looks cute, and the paint can be removed any time in the future anyway (as well as the upholstery when a new trend emerges). For now it is completely adorable and perfect for what she is using it for.
To those who say a heirloom has to remain exactly as it started:
Doesn't a heirloom has even more meaning if each generation updates it a little for their taste and the current times while preserving the integrity of the original structure?
what a great thing to be able to look at the different incarnations through time of a single object in the family.
LOVE THIS!
Beautiful.
I'd like to see the footstool fluffy faux fur on the arms as well.
It looks so much better! What a great job!
I'm absolutely NOT of the anti-painted wood brigade, but I wouldn't have painted the wood on this particular piece. I would've turned it over to a pro to be refinished if fumes were an issue. The upholstery desperately needed to be replaced, though, so good call on that.
I can see not doing fumes when pregnant. But I wouldn't have painted the chair, I'd have waited til later to redo it, and just thrown some comfy fabric throw over it for now. That would protect it from the inevitable baby throw-up stains it will soon have...soon that ikat won't be looking so great. A thicker, tighter-weave fabric that lends itself more to spot cleaning would have been a smarter choice. Was also thinking that that shaggy footstool, however one thinks it looks, would do better as a removable, washable cover than upholstered.
I didn't love the old - I didn't love the stain color, would have left if for not and would have later stripped it and restained (NOT painted.) I didn't love the old fabric, and would have definitely recovered with new fabric - these pieces were made to be reupholstered every so often. Though the green fabric doesn't look too worn out (even though I don't like it), the chair doesn't look comfortable in the before picture - looks like some seat padding was added, which is good.
I like ikat a lot, but the style of fabric doesn't seem to go with this chair design to me. And maybe it is just my back, but I prefer lesser seat depth dimensions, so my back is supported by the chair back, without having to constantly adjust back pillows, that can fall through the hole in the back of the chair anyway, but this doesn't look like a comfortable rocker to me, especially to be rocking a baby in. If it isn't comfortable, pile diapers or other necessities on it, and get a rocker that suits your back.
I am looking to repaint an old wooden coffee table that I am using as a TV stand in my kids' new study/media area that I created. Maybe I can go with the Valspar blue! Beautiful color!
People are unnecessarily mean on this site - no reason to call someone's choices "old lady." That's just rude Elle. By the way there's nothing wrong with being old or a lady. Or middle aged or a man. You just kind of wake up that way.
I love the fabric, Stephanie, and the whole thing is beautifully clean for the baby.
Speaking from experience, not every baby is a round-the-clock spit-up machine and not everything in a nursery needs to be treated as such (although durable is always good). There's every chance that this rocker will survive the baby phase fully intact, so lighten up, people!
I'm an old lady. I call things old lady looking. Elderly, dated, however sweeten it may be, old lady is old lady. And, sometimes we have lambs wool fleece on footstools or the chair arms and such to cushion a tender body area.
I think its worse to criticize an honest critique than it is to make one that goes against the praise.
That looks like a chair that's smiling
I think both look great. Love the color choices too.
As someone who used to do upholstery as a living, I have to applaud your upholstery skills!! You did a great job on this. But,...and I'm all for painting wood, just... not this piece. Personally, I would have treasured this as a true heirloom and left the wood as it was- with all of the signs of it's rich history intact. Wood never goes "out of style", it will still look great and go with everything in 100 years. But I doubt the blue will stand the test of time. In 5 or 10 years it probably won't be as cute. I would have just changed the fabric, it still would have made a huge difference.
This is an excellent makeover! Your sentimental attachment to it has kept it in the family and, like your ancestors, you were fearless to make changes to make it yours! Much more contemporary and so less "heavy" with the new color and fabrics! Remember, a piece is only as valuable as the demand for it. This rocker will be in demand for years!