My Journey as a DI-TRY-ER: The Crackle Chairs

Let me start this post off with an apology. Its been far too long since I've posted. In the past two years, I've had another baby boy (Oliver) and I became a stay-at-home-mom. Its been a busy time for me, so not a whole lot has happened on the DIY front. I'm back at it now though with 4 projects. This is the first of them:

I run a furniture selling group on facebook called "Eastern Shore Furniture." Its a great place to find awesome deals on pieces that need some TLC. I've found so much on there already and its very difficult for me to resist buying EVERYTHING! I'm fairly certain my husband will divorce me if I bring home another piece of furniture. So, for the moment, I'm going to finish the projects I've started before I invest in more pieces.

I picked up two of these chairs for $15 a piece (great deal)! They were painted with a cream-ish crackle paint. The color wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. The seats need a bit of work and to be recovered. I figured this would't be too tough of a project since all I really needed to do was paint and recover the seats. I would like to point out that I had never recovered anything before or used a staple gun. I'd cross that bridge when I came to it. Anywho, first thing I need to do was pick a color. To go with the silver/Mercury glass accents in my master bedroom, I chose a silver paint that I would later antique using an antique glaze.

The paint I decided on was Valspar Metallic Silver paint. I would like to point out that I'm not really a fan of this spray paint. I mean, its okay and it does the job. However, it comes off very easily even after its dried. I'm fairly certain there's a better paint out there. With that being said, I coated each chair a couple of times using about a can and a half of paint. I let it dry for about 8 months (yes, 8 months - I did have a baby during that time so I think I get a pass). Since they sat so long, they needed a bit of a wipe down from the dust that had accumulated. In this process, some of the paint rubbed off, and I had to touch up the affected areas. REALLY annoying.

Before and After Painting

Once the chairs were painted, I was ready for my favorite part - the glaze!! I found this incredible glaze on Pinterest somewhere and decided that I was gonna try it out. This stuff is MAGIC! It takes some practice getting the right look, but once you've got it, its transformative! Doing small areas at a time to prevent drying, I used a soft brush and painted the glaze on. You don't want to use too much because you're going to dab some if it off anyway. You do, however, want to use enough that it gets into all of the nooks and crannies of whatever your glazing. After I dabbed the glaze off of the chairs (remember, one area at a time), it left them looking almost pewter-like instead of the bright shiny silver, and I LOVED it! All of the detail in the legs popped and it just looked so perfect to me. It had such a fantastic aged look to it.

After Glaze

I let the glaze dry overnight to ensure that it would be completely cured. To finish off and seal the paint, I used a clear furniture wax. Having never used furniture wax before, I had to do some research. Much like the glaze, you have to apply the wax to small areas at a time to ensure that it doesn't dry before you can wipe it off. If you try to put it on the entire piece before wiping, it will dry and be seriously difficult to remove. It will also have a cloudy or hazy look to it. After spending a couple of hours watching Youtube videos, I was ready to wax! I started with the back of the first chair in case I screwed it up. Turns out, its pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I just wiped the wax on with a lint-free cloth (an old t-shirt), and then wiped it right off. Now, you've got to put your back into it to get the right look. It should be kind of shiny and smooth once you're done. It took me quite a while to finish this part. I wanted to make sure I covered absolutely every part of the chairs.

Once that part was done, I was ready to recover the seats. I went round and round for months on this. I found lots of fabrics that I liked, but none that I loved. And then it hit me. I had these curtains that used to hang in my bedroom that were a perfect shade of blue with such a pretty pattern on them. They were fairly thick and heavy (very close to actual upholstery fabrics) so I knew that they would work for what I needed. And BONUS, I saved some money in the process! Yet another thing I had never done before was recover seat cushions. I'd also never used a staple gun. This seemed a bit scary to me. I had this very rational fear that I was going to staple my fingers. I decided I would face my fear and recover my chairs by myself. I measured and cut my fabric (I cut both pieces of fabric so that they would have the exact same pattern on each seat, because I'm weird like that), centered it on the seat how I wanted it, and prepared to staple. My dad has this staple gun that I'm pretty sure is older than I am, but it works so I used it. With the fabric pulled tight, I was ready to staple. If you've never used a staple gun before, be warned: its really very loud. It scared the crap out of me and my four-year-old. After a few staples were in, I got my technique down and the rest of the process went rather quickly. I was very pleased with how the seat turned out. The fabric was nice and taut, and the pattern was almost perfectly centered. Go me!

The final step I did a few days later to ensure the wax was nice and dry. All that was left to do was attach the seats to the chairs. I used really long screws for this - I didn't measure them because who cares. And that was it. Finito! It was a long process, but it was well worth it!