I was going to ask my lovely readers if you have monkey mind but I know you do. We all do whether we want to admit it or not. Even Zen practioners have to deal with it at times.
But there is no question that some of us have it more than others. Thoughts darting here darting there making no sense at all. “What is my purpose?” or “Should I be doing something else?”or “Is my work good enough?” or “Does this colour really work for me?” or “This has got to be the year we fix that drain pipe on our walkway and while I’m thinking about it we really need to dig up and fix the walkway at the front of the house.”
Those conversations come up often in my head just out of the blue, those and so many more, jumping around, distracting me from what is important and preventing me from doing what I should be doing.
I had never heard of the term monkey mind before reading a wonderful book on writing by Natalie Goldberg. She refers to monkey mind often and in a Q&A section at the end of her book Natalie describes what monkey mind is:
“Monkey mind is actually a Buddhist term. We could also call monkey mind the editor or the critic. Something that creates busyness to keep us away from our true heart. Our whole culture is built on busyness. And that’s why we’re so unhappy. But we love busyness. We have to understand it. There’s busyness, there’s monkey mind, and then there’s our true heart. What does our true heart want? We have to give it at least 50 percent. Otherwise we fill our whole life with busyness. I have to do this, I’m going here, I’m making that. Daily life is very seductive. Weeks go by and we forget who we are.”
Why would I even bring this up and want to talk about it in an upholstery post? I do it because now that it is out in the open and we are all thinking about how scattered our thoughts are at one time or another, and how we work hard at creating busyness in our lives, we can relax, laugh and settle in as I tell you about my latest project and how monkey mind comes into play every time I work on a chair.
“What colour should it be?” “Do I have fabric that would look perfect on it?” or “Maybe I should go look for more fabric, and while I am out there I’ll get some groceries and check into Habitat Restore to see if I can find that perfect cabinet for the dining room.” “Oh and I have got to get home because I need to edit that piece for Chris before it goes out the door.”
As I type these things that are so true it makes me laugh and feel good that I can actually admit to it.
Well I had monkey mind with this chair for sure. How it was going to look was actually inspired by two comments on Facebook when I posted the before picture. Both people (you know who you are) thought the chair looked like a throne and suggested it be painted in gold, and one said they envisioned it with a purple fabric and the other suggested upholstering it in royal blue.
Upon reading those comments I knew exactly the fabric I wanted to use and even chose the shade of gold paint based on the shade of gold in the fabric. I know this is not purple or royal blue, but it has shades of both colours and the whimsical pattern seemed perfect.
But once I got the gold paint on the chair I began to question my fabric of choice. It didn’t pop the way I had envisioned. It didn’t grab my attention the way I knew this fabric could. I realized it just wasn’t going to work.
I went back and forth, back and forth, laying out fabrics, questioning my decision and in the end this is what I went with.
We let our minds dart here and there, questioning every little decision we make.
Once the chair was reupholstered, I had to figure out the trim. I asked my family “Should I keep it clean and simple and make it out of the same fabric as the chair” or “Should I use a pretty blue and white that matched the light blue” or “Should I make a real impact with this chair and use a rusty red fabric for the trim.” In the end you can see the one my gut directed me to but there was a lot going on in my head before I came to that decision.
Monkey brain, monkey brain leave me alone!
Whichever one I chose would have worked; the chair would have had a different feel to it but it would have looked nice. But I am thrilled with how this one thurned out. It is vibrant and fun and different than all the others.
I found it interesting when I took the chair apart there was a sticker on the underside that revealed it was made by a furniture company in London, Ontario in the 1970s. So although it is technically antique it is not antique compared to a lot of the chairs I have rescued that still had horse hair and hay as a stuffing.
Also, the fabric that I used was actually from a set of custom made drapes that I found at a second hand store. When I saw them hanging on the rack I knew immediately I had found something special. The pattern is unique and the material is of high quality. I took the drapes apart, laundered them, and they sat for a year waiting for the perfect chair.
In case you don’t know, I give all my chairs a name. Most names come easily to me but for whatever reason I struggled a bit with this one. If you would like to know what I called it, go to the “Meet the Chair” section! You will find a few more photos, the best one being a slider that shows the before and after, and a description of how I came up with the cool name.
Thanks for reading! xo
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