Whimsical Chairs

I ran across a woman who wanted a little change in her life.  Well, okay, she wanted a lot of change.  She was going to start with some chairs.  She lived in the custom home that she built 13 years ago, and it was stark raving white.  It was white EVERYWHERE!  This sweet woman decided it was time for some color, so bless her heart, she up and spray painted her kitchen chair purple.  Now, as furniture goes, I am not what you would call a purple gal.  She knew that the solid purple chairs were a "miss", so she decided to enlist my services.  She had a bowl that she really liked, with a very contemporary pattern.  She told me that she wanted something different on every rung of the chair, and lots of color.  I sketched out what I thought she might be talking about and showed her some designers on the Internet that I thought could help her describe her vision to me. 

One was Mackenzie Childs http://www.mackenzie-childs.com.  LOVE THIS!!!  I was introduced to Mackenzie Childs by my friend Vanessa's sister.  She had her entire kitchen done from top to bottom with Mackenzie Childs dishes, rugs and accessories.  She even had Mackenzie Childs knobs on her cabinets.  I fell in love with their things, and had dreams of how fun it would be to work there and paint these beautiful things every day!  (dreams can come true...I now paint beautiful things every day for a living!) 

Another artist that I wanted her to look at was Mary Engelbreit http://www.maryengelbreit.com.  She makes great use of the colors black and white, and she mixes lots of patterns together, which is exactly what my lady was looking for. 

Both of the above were not quite as contemporary as my customer wanted, but helped us to see a vision together.  If you are starting a project, I can't emphasize enough how important the research is!  It will save you a lot of wasted time and money in the end! 

With that research and her bowl, I created chairs that she absolutely did back flips over.  These were very time consuming.  I hand painted each one like a canvas.  I wanted to protect her investment in these chairs, so I chose a topcoat that would endure anything!  I topped them with Faux Effects http://www.fauxeffects.com/ C-500 Urethane for maximum durability.  Faux Effects is an awesome line of products for faux finishing.  You will see what wonderful effects can be created by visiting their website.  I purchase my Faux Effects products from Epic Paint on Jones Rd. in Houston, Texas.  Bo or John know almost everything there is to know about paint...so they can help you find what you are looking for.  I call them my "Epic Family". 

So, are you ready to see what we came up with?  Ta-da!

She ABSOLUTELY LOVED them.  It made me so happy to bring a little (okay a lot) of color to this dear woman's life.  As you can tell, her house isn't stark raving white anymore!

God bless, and have a great day!

Luvyameanit,

Nee' Nee'