This forlorn looking guy once was the special chair that resided in my good friend's grandmother's house and may have even made the trek across the prairie in a covered wagon in his early years. But, alas, time had taken its nasty toll on him, stripping him of his arms. It seemed the only humane thing to do was end his misery and send him packing to the dump.
I couldn't let that happen though and asked my friend if I could have one chance at bringing a little life back to him.
He was in worse shape than I imagined and my initial plan to replace the arms and upholster them fell flat. The upright support of one arm rest was broken and I did not have the tools to refashion a new one.
Since he had already been sentenced to the dump I figured I couldn't do much more damage to him so I cut those useless appendages off and converted him to an armless rocker.
After some sanding and hole filling and cleaning I gave him a new coat of barely grey paint (my own concoction from leftover wall paint), followed by some slight distressing and antiquing to let his age shine through.
Reupholstering the seat involved covering the old springs with a piece of canvas, upholstery foam, a layer of batting and a final piece of canvas painted to resemble an old feed sack. I attached it all with staples which were then hidden behind a row of braid.
And here he is now. (If I was really good at this blogging thing I would have great pictures of the process to insert between the paragraphs but....)
Without his arms he isn't the most comfortable chair in the house but he will be a great addition to our entry way providing a spot to take off or put on shoes. And I don't think he misses those arms too much.
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