Sitting Pretty Chairs

Flowers and pastel colours remind me of spring so I am officially calling my latest chair Spring Blossoms.

This chair was purchased two years ago in a set of three from a seller in Ottawa. I was in my chair collection mode and constantly looking on FB Marketplace to find chair deals. Clealy I thought I had a storage unit and a thriving chair upholstery business or why else would I have been running around the city buying furniture to hide from my husband? Thankfully that obsession has died down a bit and I am slowly working through completing the chairs in my collection before bringing more into the garage.

Like I said, I bought three chairs at that time and they all had cane backs that were in very bad condition. I didn’t mind that the cane was rough looking because I wanted to upholster the top of the chair anyway, so the first thing I did was cut the cane off of all the chairs. Unfortunately the cane was cut off before taking a picture but you can see the remains of it along the edge of the frame.

Normally I wouldn’t break up a set and only upholster one chair, but because this was a set of three (and not four), I decided to just work on one chair and save the other two to upholster as a matching set.

This chair is a french Louis XV style. If you are wondering how I know that, take a look at the legs; they tell a lot about a piece of furniture. Here is an excerpt from one of my blog posts describing two types of “Louis” furniture:

“If you take a look at the legs you will see what sets Louis XVI furniture apart from Louis XV furniture. The Louis XVI legs are tapered and straight; Louis XV legs have the iconic curvy legs, which I tend to be drawn to and love! Check out my gallery to see some of those curvy legs!”

Here is one of my chairs that is a Louis XVI style with straight legs:

And here is Spring Blossoms, a Louis XV style chair with curvy legs:

And here is a great website by a Canadian company that custom makes Louis XV and Louis XVI style furniture. I encourge you to browse the photos that highlight their beautiful craftmanship and you will get a clearer sense of the differences between these two styles.

Once I washed, sanded and primed the chair I painted three coats in a french blue colour called BM Nantucket Fog. The paint is more of a blue grey colour and it complemented the blue shades in the fabric.

I decided to cover the whole chair in this beautiful floral fabric instead of choosing two or even three patterns like I often do. However, by strategically positioning the fabric on the seat, the top back and the top front, you get a glimpse of all the flowers.

Once the chair was built back up with new webbing, foam, dacron, cotton and then the floral fabric it was time to make the double welt trim. I could have made it in a contrasting fabric but decided to again use the same beautiful floral.

And wouldn’t you know it… just as I finished the chair it started snowing! We have a blanket of white stuff once again. At least I could gaze at the blossoms on my chair as a sign that spring is around the corner.

I am happy to say that I made this chair to donate to a fundraiser to raise money for the Ottawa Food Bank and it is officially my very first Chair-ity Chair. Hopefully it is brightening up its new home!