Deconstructed Chair

Remember how I said that I have always had expensive taste? Well here is a great example of what I am talking about. Deconstructed furniture. Yep you read that right. Basically furniture that looks like its not finished, but it is. Exposed wood frame, coordinating materials (or not), nail heads and even some of the stuffing poking out makes up this look. I started seeing these pieces pop up on my Pinterest page, and I was in love! It was like antique meets modern or something crazy like that. I was in love until I saw the price tag on some of these things. You can purchase these starting at $1,200 and go all the way up to over $4,000. Seriously. Just google it and see what you find. Many of the items I used in this project are linked below, for your convenience.

Of course my budget isn't that big, so the wheels started turning. FB marketplace, here I come. I found this lovely jewel toned chair and ottoman for $40 bucks. I got it home and stared at it for a few days, yes I was a little intimidated, and then decided to tackle it by removing the fabric on the outside wing of the chair. I was hoping there was a nice sturdy wood frame, and there was! I used left over nail heads from another project, painters drop cloth, and the gray material pictured below. It was definitely trial and error.

Above, you can see this jewel tone beauty. Well, not so much a jewel to look at, but in the mid 1990's It was beautiful! No worries! I have plans to turn this old, outdated piece into something worth being proud of to have in our living room. The painters drop cloth was definitely going to be part of the look, but then I had to go on the hunt for a material that I liked and would fit the neutral color scheme I try to stay with throughout the house aside from some pops of color here and there. I decided on the gray and cream print from amazon. The next couple of pictures is where I began the deconstructing. The frame was solid, but I did have to do a little sanding on it to leave it exposed. I then used Minwax Weathered Oak on it to give it a little color and seal it. Don't let the name fool you though. This is a semi-transparent color with gray tones in it. It's a very natural looking color with gray highlights depending on how the wood takes the stain. The last picture shows where I took off the material on the wings of the chair to expose the fluffy stuff inside. Yes, fluffy stuff is a very professional term to use here. HA! I did want to have just a bit of stuffing showing, I just wasn't sure exactly how it would work out. You'll see it soon! Keep reading......

Once I got the chair itself covered, using fabric tape, staples and decorative nail heads, I then had to tackle the cushion and ottoman. Its a little hard to tell in the original pictures, so you'll just have to trust me when I say that the chair cushion and ottoman cushion had definitely seen better days. I kept the original foam on both and just added to them. I added more foam, wrapped it in batting, and then drew out my "pattern", and I use that term lightly. I am not a good seamstress. I literally sat down in front of the sewing machine a couple of years ago, and first taught myself how to use the machine, and second how to sew up simple seams. That's as far as my sewing abilities go. Any who, after redoing the cushion cover for the chair 3 times, I finally got it to where I was somewhat satisfied, or maybe just tired of messing with it? IDK. Last but not least, and really this should have been done first (big sigh), but I was too excited about tearing this chair apart and I still had to do something with the old dark stained legs. My favorite way to refinish the legs is to simply paint them white with Fusion mineral paint (my fav), and then use Fusion mineral paint antiquing glaze to give them an antique look. It looks great, and it's super easy to do! OK, let's get on to what you've been waiting for, drum roll.................. below is the finished product. I hope you will be inspired by this, and not be afraid to tackle something as crazy as this. I would love to hear you thoughts on this project!

Full affiliate disclosure on Homepage

Comment Box