Rocking Chair Re-Do!

I love creating. I love having the ability to see something and know that it has potential to be anything I want it to be. There is something so satisfying in making what was once deemed "ok" into something fabulous! My mom and dad have had this little old rocking chair sitting in their garage for years and years and I decided that I wanted to give it a makeover and a new home. (I, of course, asked if I could take it, just in case you are thinking I ran off with it smuggled in the back of our truck.)

This rocking chair has history, too, which just makes it even more cool. This was my Grandpa Henry's chair when he was a little boy. 

That's my Grandpa and Grandma Henry. Wasn't he so handsome? I never had the opportunity to meet him, as he passed away about 3 1/2 years before I was born.

So here is the much anticipated "before" picture of the rocking chair.

 As I pulled off all the fabric, batting, padding and what have you, I found a penny, a bright light {raise your hand if you ever played with a bright light as a kid! *raises hand*} and other miscellaneous junk that I promptly threw in the trash. I did hold on to that bright light for a while though, just to savor all the good memories it held. I am sure I was the kid the stuck it in there. 

And now, the "during" picture. When all the junk is ripped out and you are left with a bare-bones structure. At this point I started thinking, "wait, I have never re-upholstered anything in my life. What if I can't get this put back together?? What was I THINKING?!" And then I promptly took it outside and spray painted it to death with that beautiful Rustoleum Heirloom White spray paint (satin finish, if you're curious). It is my favorite off-white spray paint. If you go buy it and use it on your next project, you will not be disappointed. Seriously. It's amazing. And it has this 2x coverage feature that really makes it unnecessary to use a primer, if you don't want to. (I did use a primer with this project, but I have used the paint before and not done a primer layer and it was totally fine!)

After this, I looked at the fabric I had bought (in haste... gulp!) at Joann's a few months ago and realized, it just wasn't doing anything for me. I showed it to Dallin (who had been with me when I picked it out) and he said, "why did we buy that again?" Yeah. My thoughts exactly. It was nice. But that's all. I wanted something AWESOME that I loved! Not just nice. So, I went to the Joann website and could not find anything I loved that was less than $39.99/yard and I was not about to pay that much money for fabric. So, I then turned to my wonderful friend, Google, and stumbled onto this website. Behold, Warehouse Fabrics Inc. This place ROCKS MY UPHOLSTERY FABRIC WORLD. There were so many fabrics to choose from, I about had a heart attack. And all the fabrics I loved were only $7.99/yard!! {Note: not all their fabric is that cheap, it just so happened that all the ones I loved were that cheap.} I really debated between this, this and this, but ended up loving the red (it always comes back to red with me. I am so my mother's daughter it is uncanny.) Ok, and if I am being honest, this one and this one were totally in the running. I just really love owls.

So, here she is in all her finished glory!

 

We're still trying to decide if we want to add the arms back on or just leave it as is. I kind of want the arms on. Aesthetically,  it just looks better in my mind. But I think it is still pretty darn cute without. Please don't look too closely at the upholstery job I did. While it is just fine for me, it is by no means professional looking! There are a couple of puckers here and there and things aren't totally symmetrical, but it was for Claire and she loves it and it looks cute with the rest of the decor in the living room, so I would say... SUCCESS! It wasn't terribly difficult, and now that I have done it once, I will have more confidence to do something like this again! Thanks Mom and Dad for the rocker, she will be very much loved in the coming years. :)

Linking up here!