My Spray Paint Brings All the Boys to the Yard

My spray paint brings all the boys to the yard.  And they like it's better than yours.

Damn right it's better than yours.  I can teach you but I'd have to charge. 

I know you want it.  The paint that sprays things.  What the guys go crazy for.

They lose their minds.  They way I D-I-Y.  I think it's time.

La-la-la-la-la.  Shake it up.  La-la-la-la-la.  The chairs are waiting.  

I decided to spend my day tackling a major do-it-yourself project inspired by Hyphen Interiors how-to on painting upholstery. (It's all over Pinterest, yo.)  I'll get to the part about how the boys ended up in my yard, but first let's take a look at the chair "before" because I so cleverly remembered to snap a pic.

My dad brought this chair (and its twin) home from a trip to South Dakota.  I was immediately in love with the bones, the body, and the silhouette.  (Yea, I know... sometimes I sounds like I am physically, romantically attracted to furniture.  Sometimes I wonder, too.)  Anyway, I wasn't so head-over-heels with the upholstery.  Nothing against golfing.  But really?  

It's a camo background with little golfers all over it, knickers and all.  Too Happy Gilmore for my taste.  So these two chairs have been taking up space in my parents basement until I have the time and motivation to learn how to re-upholster.  My father mentioned that I might want to reeeeally think hard before doing anything permanent to the chairs.  Because they might be worth something.  Really?

 So I hit up Lowe's.  And then I hit up Wally World.  And then JoAnn crafts because Hobby Lobby is closed on Sundays.  And I ended up with a paint pan, quart of beautiful deep teal latex satin paint (that's a mouthful), paint brush, and the entire row of little bottles of fabric medium from JoAnn because they didn't have a big bottle.  Oy vey.  Oh, and I got a spritzer bottle.

I set up shop between my house and the neighboring one, spreading out my spraypaint sheet in the warm, 85-degree afternoon.  And I got to work.  I'm not going to go into the nitty gritty details of this project because Kristy at Hyphen Interiors does the best job of giving comprehensive instructions on her blog.  But I basically mixed latex paint with fabric medium, sprayed the upholstery, and painted it in thin layers.  

Here's where the boys come into my yard.  Hardly an hour into painting, a couple lads walk by and are all curious and stuff.  Didn't stick around long and then got on their way.  Then another dude stopped by to see what I was doing.  (You don't see a girl painting upholstery every day.)  A few minutes later my neighbor came by and introduced himself.  He stuck around awhile talking about how I was creating a masterpiece.  And how "I be killin' it with that paint."  And then when he left he called me "lil mama."  Best conversation ever.  Him and a pal stopped by a couple hours later to check on my progress.  His friend said my "antiquing got swag."  

So after a loooong day of layering latex paint + fabric medium.  Then taping off the upholstery and coating the chair's frame with some ivory spray paint.  And getting some sunburn on my shoulders.  :(  ...I finally have one chair completed!  This is a time-consuming project.  And your arms get a work out from the brush strokes.  But I'm definitely looking forward to transforming this chair's twin.  But I'm thinking orange or pink. ;)  We'll see...

While I was getting my swag on with the paint and spray paint... I managed to get some swag all over me.  Sometimes I'm just happy to get more paint on my project than I do on myself.  My hands, legs, and shorts were splattered turquoise and ivory.  (At least they were good colors!)  

This^ is what I look like when I'm trying to wash off paint but it just won't come off!!  (Flattering, I know...)

Hope you all had lovely weekends!

Sincerely,

Lil Mama Undergrad