apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have to soundly disagree with AT's advice. Spend time and money painting the wood to accommodate some truly hideous and completely inappropriate upholstery? No way. If you plan to reupholster someday, just live with it for now. Don't waste money on an interim fix. Put a few dollars in an envelope every week and soon you'll have enough to do the chairs justice. If you can't look at them in the meantime, throw a sheet over them.

I would NEVER in a MILLION YEARS paint the wood! IMHOP that would give it a generic mass market, made yesterday look. I would either:
1. Get some nice fabric and stout thread and needles and sew the new fabric right over and into the offending upholstery, then cover the seams with new upholstery tape.
2. Take a class or barter skills or learn how to do what I think would be a very cheap and easy reupholstery job.

Painting the wood is a good quick fix.... Brilliant idea....
Perhaps....another "multi-weekend" project/idea could be stripping the wood (although with the carvings it may be difficult....) to a lighter more natural wood.... and just keeping it natural...
Personally I adore the green... and as for the 70's ..... I enjoy that as well...
Maybe try to embrace it rather than...reject? hopefully this mind set will bring on more ideas....
good luck it's BEAUTIFUL!!!

Just take off the stuffy arm protectors (you're planning on upholstering eventually anyway, so who cares if the arm bolsters wear a bit) and add a big pillow in the creamy color in between the gold and green flowers - maybe a mostly cream etsy-style pillow with just a bit of those colors in the detailing or the design. And then live with it until you can upholster it.

I think for a temporary solution, I would make a new cover for just the seat cushion. Something in a solid for sure ... The wood looks kind of dark so I would pick something light. Like, the "background" colour that's in the pattern of the current upholstery, maybe?

Totally depends on the rest of the room, and how brave you want to be.

Bu, um, are you sure its 20's?

And I never quite understood "get some nice fabric" as advice in a situation like this. What does that mean, exactly?

Terrible advice from AT. Painting the wood will just make the chair look cheap and won't do anything to neutralize that upholstery.

Save your pennies and reupholster it in a neutral fabric. If you have a really funky, colorful, granny chic sort of home, then you might be able to get away with leaving the chair as is and adding a bright pillow or draping a throw over it. If not, slipcover.

I think painting the chair is the worst idea out of all possible ideas, the wood and its carvings are gorgeous! I don't mind the upholstery but I think that is because I've also inherited antiques with more or less the same retro velvet and I was so thrilled to have the beauties that I didn't care about the upholstery. My style is very eclectic bohemian, I can make anything work. I suggest, as mentioned above, remove the arm covers and add a unique pillow in teal, burgundy or beige... This chair is so beautiful, please don't paint it! I think you should "live with it" for now and give it a chance as is, perhaps it will influence your style! :)

This chair could look great painted white, but I'm guessing you bought it because you like the wood? It looks like the seat cushion is not attached. If not, you can make a very simple slip cover for it with some inexpensive fabric that you can live with for now. Then simply cover the rest by running some more fabric over the back and front, kind of like a stair runner. Just stitch it the existing fabric.

OMG, don't paint it. The wood is what makes the chair special. If you paint it, it becomes yard sale junk.

If you can't afford to recover the whole chair, just slipcover the bottom cushion and drape a textile over the back of the chair. (It's a look you see a lot in European magazines.)

P.S. If you really hate the chair, sell it. Many collectors would love it. But sanding and painting will RUIN its value as an antique, because you can never get back the patina that comes with 100 years of age. (Even if someone later stripped off all the white paint AT recommends, the original finish would be destroyed. Watch Antiques Roadshow, and you'll see what I mean.)

have you thought about getting the chair cleaned? i dont know how expensive that is but i really see this chair with a purple pillow. i think thats all it really needs to give it a different feeling. plus-your lighting seems to be the factor that makes this chair look drab. if anything i would consider what kind of lighting would essentially either compliment, enhance or help push the chair to the background (whichever one you are going for).

also, think about its function. maybe it could become your "catch all" that way, you are covering up the fabric anyway. :)

maybe a rug undrneath it would also help give the chair another feeling?

Antiques Roadshow says that that value of antique is only ruined by refinishing or painting furniture IF the pieces is already a highly valued piece... Some antiques actually are worth more once the finish is restored.

As for your options...

You could slipcover the cushion. That would take just a bit of sewing. In addition to that, make matching arm protectors and pillow in the same fabric you use for the cushion. Get a length of the fabric and drape it over the back and under the cushion. You can use pins under the cushion to keep it from moving.

Another more radical option is getting fabric paint and painting the fabric to match your decor. I did this with the hideous fabric on a chair my mom picked up at a garage sale. The chair was great, the fabric wasn't. Painting the fabric is just a temporary fix as I plan to have it reupholstered once I've saved up the money.

So, to recap: you hate the upholstery, but you don't want to change it and you don't want to cover it up.

You're not giving us a lot to work with, are you?

Some small cushions in complementary but more fashionable colours will help tone down the 70s effect. But it would be preferable if you just saved hard and got them reupholstered. A velvet in a warm colour (plum, burgundy, coffee etc) would suit the era and the gentleman's club vibe.

Red leather and nailheads. If you want to go really crazy, hot pink vinyl and nailheads. Make it look like it was fit for a Queen (or King)

Burn it. It's hideous.

@patrick (the other one): By "get some nice fabric" I meant they could get some fabric that that they like and use it to reupholster the chair. But yes, I suppose 'nice' is a subjective term. Hope this clarifies.

mskk--

Sorry, didn't mean to call you out specifically. Thanks for responding!

HLI has it!

AT is so wrong on this one.

Paint it, but not white. Maybe a rich jewel-tone red or blue or green or amber.

Dont paint the wood! You like the wood, right? I realize that you don't want to cover it with a slip cover, but that might be a good solution for the present, until you can have it reupholstered. Remember, it's only temporary.

That way you don't harm that beautiful wood.

Paint is also temporary.

I think the original wood would look beautiful with a plain, neutral burlap fabric. It would balance the ornateness of the rest of the chair.

I'm having this same type of problem with a large orange plaid couch. It has nice lines but an old and ugly pattern, and I am saving up for a replacement, but for now I am stuck with it.
When in doubt go with the color wheel. Add some complementary colors either red or purple. (Purple will make the chair seem more yellow, and red will make it seem more green)
Or to tone it down a little use a triadic color scheme, add some orangy-reds and bluish-purples, a coverlet and maybe a throw pillow or bolster pillow. They will affect the lines of the piece but please don't paint it, just wait until you have the money to reupholster.

Leave it as it is and invest your time and money in making a floor cloth to set it on, mostly white with some color and design that draws on the 70's upholstery but links it with something fresh and arty. Add a mossy terrarium or bowl on a coffee table in front of the sofa.

Paint is not temporary in the way that slipcovers are. As others have pointed out, removing paint from wood never leaves it in the same condition.

The wood is nice and the upholstery fabric is not. Why ruin one in order to accommodate the other?

I really wouldn't paint this chair. The problem is that the frame is intricate and the fabric is also intricate so they don't cohabitate all that well together. First, ditch the arm caps. Add a white/cream (match the background) lumbar (long rectangular) pillow to help neutralize some of the print. You could always wrap the seat cushion in white/cream fabric and use a green pillow. By adding a larger plane of solid, you'll quiet down the floral. Eventually, I'd love to see this done in a solid jewel tone velvet.

Just saw that HLI already posted what I said. Oh well....great minds. =>

Get some rich peacock blue velvet and cover just the cushions. It will look opulent.

Paint bad - ruin chair for all future lovers. . . Half the expense of upholstering is in hiring a professional but the structure of the soft parts are fairly boxy so reupholstering it yourself wouldn't be to difficult - the trick is to cut the pieces without seam allowances wash the cover when you've sewn it up and then wrestle the cover onto the chair while it is still just slightly damp with a strong friend and a heavy duty staple gun or upholstery tacks (take chair apart first of course). Or a cheap white cotton throw and a spectacular cushion - wooden arms are beautiful to look at but darned uncomfortable to sit in - in the mean time if you don't know what you want to cover it in.

the dark wood is beautiful! please don't paint it! I would just put a blanket folded over the back and a bunch of throw pillows to hide it a little bit!

Hey guys, thank you so much for all the suggestions, I really appreciate all your help.

I will definitely not be painting the wood. It's what I like most about the furniture, and it fits in my Echo Park house. This chair and matching couch has been in the family for many years, it purchased by my mom and grandma at an estate sale in Los Feliz in the 1940s.

So I think I'm going to look for some good throw pillows, and brush up on my sewing skills while I save money for reupholstery.

Thanks so much! If you do have any recommendations for the ultimate upholstery fabric, I'd love to hear them.
Christina

Usually I don't obsess about this but Please Don't Paint It!
Put a solid colored pillow in the chair until you can recover it. I have a 70's loveseat I actually bought for the green, gold and orange print.