Maroon is Such an Ugly Word

Did anyone else notice that I managed to work antlers into all 3 of this week's posts? I just realized. Apparently I was stuck on a theme. Well, today I'm going to break out of my antler rut. Not an antler in sight!

Approximately a year and a half ago, I was trolling through Kijiji and found two captain's chairs for $40. They. Were. Hideous. MAROON. How is that even a real colour anymore? We should have left it in the 70s. Anyway, I could see the potential in their classic shape, even if their current appearance was less than desirable. As my best friend and I would say, they looked like they had "a nice personality."

It looks more like a gross brown in this photo but I promise you, they were MAROON.

So, stage one in my Clueless-Style makeover was to sand the chairs and give them a coat of white paint. Lest you believe that I was so motivated I started right away, let me also tell you that they sat in my living room in all of their hideous maroon glory for almost a year before I even touched them. In my defense, I was in school and crazy busy, but they were serious eye sores. They took forever to sand. FOREVER. I think I may need to invest in an electric sander for future use. I don't know how many coats of paint/sealant the previous owner put on them but they must have REALLY liked maroon. Sad.

So after a copious amount of sanding, I primed the chairs and then painted 2-3 coats of white paint. They weren't bad. They were certainly better than maroon.

After being primed

One coat of paint

Two coats of paint

But I didn't love them. So again, in true V form, they sat in my living room for another six months while I stared at them, disgruntled.

Then, pinspiration hit! I found this photo on pinterest:

via FRYD + DESIGN

And I fell in love. Soft ballet pink chairs?? How perfect! Extra girly? Absolutely! So I took the plunge. Only this time, I was a little wary of how long it had taken to paint the chairs the LAST time - so I went the spray-paint route. I picked up two cans of Ballet Slipper spray paint at Michael's and got to work.

 Ballet Slipper Pink

For some bizarre reason, I thought that spraying the first chair inside my apartment was a great idea (I don't have any outdoor space). Let me tell you, it is a TERRIBLE idea. I'm sure no one is surprised. There was a fine sheen of Ballet Pink across everything on the left side of my living room. Luckily I managed to wipe up most of it before it dried. So for the second chair, I enlisted the assistance of a friend and borrowed her backyard for the afternoon. MUCH better idea. Please learn from my mistakes. So here are my pretty pretty chairs now, after several thin coats of spray paint:

Ballet Slipper Pink

 Ta Da!

I LOVE them! They don't go at all with my current living room, which is a bit of a mish-mash of things. (These photos were taken in my office, which has a better wall colour.) I'm moving next month though and selling a lot of my living room furniture, so I wasn't concerned about matching the existing room.

As for the durability of spray paint, I can't vouch for that just yet. I did spray the chairs back in April and they still look awesome...but it has only been 3 months and they're not used all that often. Time will tell.

Have a great weekend!