Had a lovely day today surrounded by inspiring, talented and eco conscious stylers at the Home Souk and Rethink, Revamp, Restyle event. I was demonstrating furniture painting techniques all day.. and transformed this dowdy little chair into a french bistro styled monsieur!

I absolutely adore french style, and especially that romantic yet battered chippy paint loved and used look.. I did a little inspiration trail into this project as people were going to be looking on..

My first go to for any styling ideas is Design Sponge.. I could get lost in their ‘Sneak Peaks’ for hours, and voila, there’s a perfectly placed Bentwood Bistro chair!

Colour inspiration came from the beautiful photography blog Paris Parfait..

I’ll do another post on my chippy paint crush another time..

So here I am sanding away..

With my little helper..

Sanding is key for any furniture paint job, and especially for the ‘distressed’ look. Sand all over first. I had to strip this chair initially, but I would only do this if it had a heavy gloss on it.. if you want a very smooth painted result, prime before you start. Otherwise just get the first coat on, sand again, second coat, and sand sand sand until you have the finish you want. I had a lot of questions today on the type of paint you can use. Technically ‘satinwood’ paints are designed to go on wood, but they do give a bit of a sheen. I really like  a flat powdery look for this kind of thing, so I use emulsion and then seal it with a wax or a very light coat of varnish or stain. My favourite part of todays project was that i intended to use a contrasting colour on certain parts of the chair, but I loved the original wood contrast so much, I kept it! Sometimes the items just re- invent themselves!

And here’s the table I transformed at the workshops on display today at the showcase.. Will bring you a final after shot of my two chairs when they’re complete.. Don’t forget the Fashion Souk tomorrow too at the Europa! A feast of conscious style all weekend!

At last… the final ‘after’ shot of the chair and where it now lives..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At last.. the final ‘after’ shot of the Bentwood chair and where it now lives..