DIY French Country Chairs

Happy Sunday! Anyone else love a good DIY project? I sure do, but I'm finding that sometimes what I have designed in my head isn't always how my project turns out initially. That's okay though... I learn along the way and most of the time the end result turns out better than I originally planned. It's a process and that's what I enjoy.  In today's blog post, I want to take you along on my journey of repurposing these chairs. 

I found this set of chairs thrifting a few weeks ago when my husband and I were in St. Louis. They were $4.99/ea and I couldn't pass them up. Originally, I had planned to chalk paint them white. I put a poll up in Instagram stories and everyone agreed. 

See below for chairs painted using Jeanne d'Arc Living's chalk paint in sweet cream. 

I ended up reupholstering the cushions and decided to go with drop cloth. It's durable/inexpensive and was something I already had on hand. 

Once the chairs were sealed, I brought them inside to see what I thought. I have plans to put these in our new sitting room off the kitchen and wanted them to go with other furniture I have for that room. For about a week I left the chairs inside and I couldn't get over the fact they were so plain. I had remembered seeing a similar chair on Courtney's Instagram at @frenchcountrycottage and decided to add some accents to give these chairs a little more dimension. 

Photo Credit: Courtney @frenchcountrycottage 

Isn't Courtney's chair lovely? I was drawn to the golden back of the chair. Living in the country, I did what any local would do and set out for Wal-Mart to see if they had anything I could work with. I ended up purchasing these two bottles of craft paint (antique gold and coffee latte) and mixing them to try to achieve a similar golden color to Courtney's chairs.

I think I got pretty close - what do you think? 

I also loved the antique glaze on Courtney's chairs. I felt like that was part of what mine was missing - the chair was so stark you couldn't really see the pretty ornate detail.  I could have used dark wax, but for more of a glaze effect, I decided to cover the chairs with a stain. It gave the chairs a perfect light antique hue. To bring out more of the ornate detail at the top, I used a gold leafing technique.

Here's the finished DIY product.

I can't wait to get these chairs in our new sitting room! The house we just purchased was built in the 1940's and now more than ever I am being inspired by French country design. 

I would love to hear your thoughts below on this DIY.

Xx,

Amy