Something Vintage.....Something Blue

Oh I do love to sit my gluteous maximus on an old comfy chair. Which is just as well as our li'l ole humble abode is filled with many a vintage chair. Some that have been recovered by moi (many a bona fide upholsterer would raise their eyebrows heavenwards as to the manner in which I have recovered my chairs); and some rather woebegone 'upholsterer's delights' that are sitting waiting rather patiently to be transformed into a new object on which one can lounge, in a rather relaxed manner.

We are in the middle of a very frosty and chilly winter, where I am greeted every morning with a new day of shivers. Old Man Winter has slowly crept up our country road and covered everything and everyone in his path with deep frosts, biting winds and at times horizontal rains. Indeed, there are days when I rather feel like the legendary Snow Queen sitting in her icy castle where stalactitic and stalagmitic encrustations abound!

The upside of this wintertide is that our home has several fireplaces that are ablazing with wonderful heat 24/7 to melt away all signs of Old Man Winter. Open fires are truly one of the magical things of Winter. They invite you to sit in a comfy chair with a cuppa, to stare into the hypnotising dancing flames and flickering embers, slowly being warmed from the tip of one's toes slowing travelling upwards until one is warm and cosy. The downside is that sometimes these fires spit out hot embers  that unfortunately, on one occasion, found it's target on one of my favourite vintage rocking chairs and left a very noticeable black hole in the upholstery. (I am afraid that I don't have any photographic evidence of this mishap.....this tragic event happened before I started my recent journey into blogland.

Oh no........what to do.............??

My 'dowry of cloth', (of which I have waxed lyrical in an earlier post)...those piles of glorious hand embroidered doilies that I have collected for years, have come to the rescue.....yet again. I covered the seat of my chair with a selection of embroidered pretties and an assortment of blue fabrics from my stash, hand stitching them carefully in a visually pleasing arrangement.

 

And.....I must admit I love my old and  "oh so comfy" chair even more.

 

Now........in my 'parlour' where an assemblage of  vintage chairs sit each day, there happens to be a chair, which I have christened 'The Throne'. This beautiful artefact of bygone times was on display in my favourite vintage shop in Sydney, 'Frou Frou Old and New'. As I looked in the window it beckoned me, enticing me to take it home with me. Of course it was not as it appears below, it was covered in olive green upholstery and the wood frame was ostentatious gold!

 

Me being me, saw beyond its tacky exterior and carted my treasure home. With my trusty staple gun and paint brush in hand I immedialely set about to transform my 'throne''. I covered the beautifully carved wood in white paint quickly wiping it off  before it dried, to give a limed effect with just a hint of gold peeping through. I then covered the less than desireable olive green upholstery with part of a vintage Italian coverlet, also a find from the lovely Parisa, from Frou Frou Old and New. The coverlet is a lovely white damask with lovely raised cartouches and touches of lemon, apricot, blue and pink flowers. Of course every chair needs a cushion, so I stitched a cushion, using the same vintage coverlet and fashioning a garland of ribbon flowers weaving in and out of a bowed ribbon.

 

So these days as I sit in my  parlour, enjoying the ambience and warmth of a fire, I have a choice on where to place my gluteous maximus. Will it be the 'queen-like'  throne, the new doily-covered rocking chair or.... perhaps my chaise lounge which is next in line for my amateur upholsterer treatment!

 

 

Linking up to Karen at  Quilty Creations  where for the month of July she is holding a Something Old Something New challenge? Have a 'bo peep', it's all about turning something pre-loved, something which has seen better days, or in my case something vintage, into something new, into an object which will give many more years of pleasure.