In the summer of 2010, we spent a week on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia at a vacation cottage owned by a neighbor. There wasn't a lot to do down there, but of course we managed to find a wonderful hospice thrift store on Rt. 13 right near the turnoff to the house.
The first day we were there, we spotted a cool vintage rocker priced at $25. Here you'll have to use your imagination because, no, I don't have a before picture. It was upholstered in a dark green and pink granny print, and the fabric had seen better days.
The biggest argument against buying it, though, wasn't the stained fabric or our lack of reupholstering skills--the problem was our car.
We drove down there with two bikes and two kayaks on a Honda Civic.
And we drove home looking like the Clampetts with two bikes, two kayaks, and a chair on that Honda Civic:
It actually took us all week to decide to buy the chair. Doug is always game to buy something if I express an interest, but I was reluctant... until he said, "You know, that chair would look really nice upholstered in ticking."
We picked up the chair on our way home and started taking it apart right away.
It wasn't pretty. The inside looked as though it had housed generations of small creatures:
But we finally got it down to just wood, springs, and strapping:
I know there are people who think it's breaking the laws of antique-ology to paint a piece like this, but we tend to just go with what we like, and we saw blue and white for this chair. So after buying foam, batting, tacks, cotton duck for the base layer, and blue ticking for the upholstery, we attacked the project.
Here is the finished chair, and I have spent many happy hours reading in it in our renovated attic--where we also failed to take before pictures :-(
Doug really did have me at ticking.
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