One Peace at A Time: French Louis VI Chair

I'm a little obsessed with the French country/provincial look.

The creams and whites really make my home feel cozy and inviting!

I was driving home over the summer and at a random thrift store on the side of the road of all places I found these two BEAUTIFUL French Louis chairs!!!!

OK, so I won't go straight to calling them beautiful, but their bones and structure were so fabulous, I knew I could make them beautiful!

There is nothing pretty about purple velvet and black to me.

So I grabbed some pliers and a vice grip and got to work! I made sure not to tear the fabric too bad so that I could use it as a template when it came time to reupholster in the fabric of my choice.

I have a can of Valspar paint from Lowe's that I paint all of my furniture with.

It took two coats to make sure all the black was covered.

I was going for a more antique/vintage/worn look and busted out my trusty Annie Sloan stained wax to give it that finish.

To apply, I took an old ratty t-shirt and ripped the sleeves off. With the stained wax, less is more!!

There is a fabric shop that was just right down the street from our rental house called Renees.

This little old woman from somewhere in Europe orders her fabric from overseas and has it shipped to her. I could spend hours in her store!

I eventually found exactly what I wanted.

After a few youtube reupholster 101 videos, I started my first reupholstering job.

I knew I wasn't skilled enough to put piping back on the seams so I thought I would give nail head a try

I didn't think that individual nail heads would cover the staples, so I did some research on faux nail head trip. I found some 16 ft nail head trim from Ebay.

It was fairly easy to put on the chair, and it went around the rounded edges exactly how I wanted it to!

I will say I had to pull a few of the real nails I had to tack it on with out because they went in crooked.

I didn't have a mallet so I had to improvise