I have a dilemma. I bought this chair for $2 at a garage sale last week with plans to paint the frame and recover the seat. The chair itself is in pretty good shape, and for $2, I thought I could risk being a little out-there with my treatment of it.
My first reaction was to paint it a fun, vibrant color (maybe like this Mediterranean blue) and redo the seat cover in a fun pattern. My right brain liked this idea. But then my left brain had to go and pipe up and suggest sticking with my trusty espresso spray paint and covering the seat in a biege fabric, maybe with some stencils like this lampshade.
I think the left brain choice would blend in more with my current living room; on the other hand, I think the left brain choice would just blend right in with my current living room. And I don’t know if I want that. It’s a conundrum. So, now the two halves of my brain are duking it out over the future of the $2 chair, rendering it useless for simple tasks like vacuuming.
That’s my story, and I am sticking to it.
Here’s where you come in. HELP! What do you think I should do with the $2 chair? Funky color? Neutral and classy? Or Choice C, some fabulous idea that you come up with for me, so I don’t have to think?
To give you some background info, here are a few things I have in my living room right now. Colors are basically chocolate brown, grayish-sage green, and beachy blue.
As you come up with all your wonderful ideas, here are some of my own personal decorating guidelines:
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I don’t do the “distressed” look.
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Botanical prints are good, floral prints less so. Geometric prints rock.
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I like to use lots of different textures.
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The Blue Man Group gives me the heebie jeebies. Not really decorating-related, but important nonetheless.
So there it is. My challenge to you: Come up with an awesome plan for my $2 garage sale chair before my brain collapses in on itself.
Off you go.
I think you should go for a glossy dark brown like espresso and a blue seat cover about the same colour as your afghan only more vibrant! You might even be able to find a seat cover in blue with tan swirls and something!~~Ponytails
Another idea: spray paint it woody or glossy tan and then do a blue seat cover about the same color as the blue spray paint that you showed.~~Ponytails
I think you should mix your two ideas!either an espresso chair with a fun, blue geometric print or a vibrant blue chair with maybe a more demure chocolate fabric for seat cover.
Why don't you flip the option- a cream chair with a dark espresso seat with some type of vinyl or other art on the flat space on the back rest? Or just toss on a pillow with a tiny touch of orange (compliment of blue and goes well with green if it is the right shade) and toss some flowers with the same colors on a nearby table. Voila!
Why not go with your original instinct and go for the blue and if you don't like it later, you could change it. I have some fabric I purchased off ebay that is is silvery gray blue that has french words all over it. Maybe something like that for the seat cover?
It might make a good chair to add to the new play room with all the bright funky colors.But, it'll also look nice in the colors of your living room, too, if you want the chair in there.
I think you should not be afraid to go with the funky color. I just read an article written by one friend about another. The writer said she visited the home of a friend once, a home that had always been done in neutral tones. When she visited her friend this particular time, though, she had added the brightest, most outlandish lamp to her neutral decor. It was an attractive lamp, just not what she would have ever imagined her friend choosing. She said the friend told her she chose it because she just loved everything about it and it made her happy, and while it went with nothing else in her home, the writer said the crazy unexpected lamp suited her friend's personality perfectly and was, quite possibly, the best thing in her home.
Play it safer with the color of the chair frame, then go bold, maybe with blue/green/chocolate brown striped pattern for the cushion.