Like a vintage chair, looks like '40s, '50s, or '60s,
it's in really rough shape.
So, I got this chair to fill an empty space
in an office that I had.
And I closed the office
and I could not part with these chairs,
there's two of them.
I bought them for ten bucks at a thrift store.
Nice. So what I would say is this,
so this finish on the wood is sort of,
we kinda call it, like, No-Man's Land
because it's not dark enough to be elegant,
and it's not bleached enough to feel,
sort of, time-worn or antique,
and so the easiest thing and the most inexpensive thing,
since you spent ten bucks on these would be
to paint the frame yourself.
Keep it neutral, because I think
that you don't want to tie yourself into, like,
an orange frame or something that you might get bored with.
But, either a pale gray would be beautiful
on the frame, or a white.
Paint the wood parts.
Yeah, and then if it gets on the fabric,
who cares?
Who cares?
Right.
Prime it, seal it and then you'll be in really good shape.
In terms of the fabric for the chair
what I would suggest is doing something
with a little bit of life to it
that feels a little bit mid-century,
so like a small pattern,
like a small-scale pattern is great.
There are instructions online on how
to upholster a chair.
I can do a seat with a staple gun.
I cannot do this myself,
so send a photo around to a couple of
Mom and Pop upholstery places in your town,
and just say like,
"how much would you charge me for this and
how much fabric do I need?"
and it shouldn't really cost more
than a couple of hundred dollars,
maybe 300 hundred dollars to do.
But, buy the fabric all at the same time
even if you can't afford to redo both at the same time
because you have to make sure the fabric matches.
Hello
How are you?
What's the story of your rocking chair?
So, this was my grandmother's
who was my absolute best friend
and we put loads of rocking mileage
on that chair when I was little.
Wow
She passed away about six years ago,
it is definitely the centerpiece of my living room
that needs some updating, to kind of go with my house
but still remain functional.
How would you describe your house?
Modern farmhouse-y.
Pefect. This is perfect. I actually love this chair,
and I love the story behind it,
so I think it's just a really easy update.
The first thing I would do is a simple coat of paint.
I would take a white, something like this,
I think this is Chantilly Lace,
it's a really beautiful color,
give it a couple coats,
really easy update.
The next thing we'd do,
I would create a really nice simple cushion.
Something subtle.
I don't think I'd actually do a lot of pattern or anything.
I just like would do a beautiful Belgian linen,
something like that, and then
I would also play around with the idea of
creating some round pads for the handrails.
That's a great idea,
there's patterns for that online
that you leave the strings and then you tie it underneath
And you just tie it underneath.
Yeah. It's like this.
It's farmhouse.
It's very French Country farmhouse.
But modern.
Yeah I love that.
That would be really chic.
That's been on my deck for awhile as you can tell.
Oh wow.
But my husband used to sit on it, when he was alive,
and he passed away quite a few years ago.
Really?
And it means a lot to me. But the cats have ruined it.
What's the rest of your home like?
I think I'm Rock and Roll.
(audience applauding)
Black and white.
Barbara, I'm so into you.
Yeah, it's kinda cool.
So, I actually think that this chair's great for that,
and the idea of, kind of, repurposing it
and bringing it to life.
The lines are really chic.
I love the
silhouette of the round,
I think
to actually play into the playfulness of the piece.
I would re-upholster it right out of the bat,
and I think I would actually recommend you do something like
The fur?
Fun, I love that color
A furry chair.
Whether it's
something like this flokati or a shearling,
a lot of texture because
with this round silhouette it's going
to really play into it.
Oh it's going to be good.
And then, to be honest with you,
I kind of like the boutin of the legs.
I do too.
I think it actually works for the piece
but if you don't then I would paint it something like
a high lacquer black.
Black.
Or a high lacquer gray
What are you going to do to this one? Whose chair is this?
Who's is this?
That's my chair.
One of my coworkers was like
"I have the perfect chair for you."
But it's not really my style.
What do you consider your style?
I'm more into, like, purple, and fun patterns.
Plain black leather is, like, kinda office-y.
So I want more like twenty-one year-old's.
Yeah, It's actually handsome and it's in great shape.
The wood finish bugs me,
and I think it looks a little bit cheap
like it came from some weird catalog,
so I would definitely paint all of this out white.
And then, you know, one of the things
that we do all the time,
it's not worth spending the money on this
to redo it in the black leather.
I wouldn't suggest you send this to an upholsterer.
It's a really hard, very specific job.
It's not straight lines, it's a bunch of,
you know,
curved cuts and things like that.
So what you could do yourself is get on Etsy,
find like a great vintage pattern of a fabric,
or even a really cool scarf,
you know, a knit scarf,
or a printed pattern scarf,
with purple in it or whatever it is,
and lay it over the top, and then just sew it, like,
cut the pattern, so it's almost like you're putting,
a belt around the whole back of it.
The seat you never have to worry about.
If its got a white frame,
I think the black will look cool
and that's what I would do.
Yeah, thank you.
That's easy.
(audience cheering)