brown bear, brown bear ...

...what do you see? I see a new chair looking at me!

This last of the rescued chairs  do up was inspired by one of our boy's favourite books Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, illustrated by Eric Carle.

I also painted his desk drawers red, yellow and black. The fabric is a $6 fat quarter from http://www.bytheyard.co.nz/ . He loves it!

my chair

Here's the next chair, mine for my desk. Not every tiny trace of paint is off it but I like it they way it is and I'm happy with how it came up.

It was a lot of work stripping off the blue paint (which is why this one is the only one that will have a wood finish).  If you've never sanded wood back and then applied linseed oil then you should, it's sooooo satisfying seeing the oil soak into it and watching the colour of the wood change.

The seat fabric is a fat quarter from By the yard, Dandelions in Gray on White from the Pure collection by Stof.

I was fiddling with another piece I got too- Backyard Baby, Birch Forest. I put that in a big embroidery hoop to display on the wall white I decide what to make with it. I'm liking the little woodpecker. 

I'm thinking that that fabric and something else nice might eventually re-cover the shade I have for my standard lamp.

Here's a reminder of how they looked when we found them on a bonfire.

the first of the rescued chairs

Last year on our Christmas holiday I rescued five of these chairs from a bonfire on the beach. I'm doing them up one at a time and each one differently, this one is M's bedroom at her desk. I love how  it turned out.

The fabric is call woodland tails, I got a fat quarter of it from http://www.bytheyard.co.nz/.

The next chair will be for me : )

chair rescue!

On New Years day we went for a walk on the beach. We were at the Rangitata huts. Every New Years night they light a gorgeous big bonfire at midnight. Below is the bonfire all ready to go AFTER I rescued 5 ( what I think are lovely) bentwood chairs. I'm going to do them up by giving them a sand and a rub with linseed oil. The previous owner of the chairs noticed that they had been removed and word got around about my 'pre-match' actions. Thankfully, she was pleased to hear that they were going to a good home and like most of the people there had a bit of a chuckle at my 'nuttiness'- but seriously- could you have watched them burn?

I plan to add padded seats too so I'll post pictures when they're done : )