I'm not Deb, but you got a great deal on the chairs and the king size covers. Where did you find them?

Thanks! I actually got the covers from walmart! Well..lets say I ordered them and they will be here in the next 7 - 10 days. :) Hopefully they will be what I'm wanting. If not, I'll keep searching. :)

rhapsdy: I'm not dlm2000 either but I was part of the original thread. What a great find!!! Congrats and please do post pics when you're done! The title of your post is truly heartwarming. Have fun!!!

rhapsdy....great buy! Those chairs are going to be fantastic. I've actually caught the 'chair bug' too. I peruse CL every day hoping to be as lucky as OSH and find a great chair at a great price

Great deal! I love the lines of the chairs, and think they will be gorgeous in matellaise. Please post the "after" pictures. You're so lucky that you can sew your own slipcovers--have you done it before?

Great club chairs. I know you will enjoy them in their new home. We are anxious to see your post pictures.

rhapsdy what a sweet thing to say! You got a great deal on those chairs - is the back cushion down? It looks like it may be. Those chairs should look fabulous when you're done - and you're sewing the slipcovers yourself? I'm impressed! Those matelasse sales are the best, aren't they? It's such a great fabric for so many home decorating projects because of the texture and weight.

I have to tell you the story of my chairs. If you didn't notice they are not the same - very similar but one is larger, more masculine and blockier than the other. I found the smaller one at a huge house sale many years ago. The crowds were scouring the main rooms of this fabulous house and I headed straight to the basement where I found this chair. It was marked $16. I wanted it and was about to ask for a sold tag. I had tipped it upside down and when I put it back it was on uneven concrete and wouldn't sit straight - the salesperson saw that it was rocking and said I could have it for $8 since it needed frame work! I couldn't get that chair in my car fast enough. It sat in my basement for a few years. My DH is in the construction/remodeling business and was doing a new kitchen for a customer when she asked him to please help her drag this big old chair to the curb for our town junk day. He looked at the chair (also with carved bun feet like the one I already had) and said he thought his wife might want it if she didn't mind. He brought it home, I bought fabric for both and had them reupholstered in a rich tapestry. I say we got the chairs for $4 each but HE says mine was $8 and his was free! ;-)

What a great story about your chairs!! And I thought my $10 chairs were a good deal! *laugh*

My mom will be helping me make the slipcovers! She's a phenomenal seamstress but I don't want to make her do it all, so I'll probably make the pattern and cut the fabric and pin stuff as needed, and she'll do the sewing. :) I can sew straight lines but not so sure about working with the piping in the seams!

And yes - the back cushion IS down! I was SO excited to figure that out! They need some new stuffing, but honestly for $10 I'm not upset. LOL

Thanks again for sharing your chairs and I promise to share mine when we are done. :)

Thanks Rhapsdy! I'll have to check that out. I have two wing back chairs that were finds I want to make matching covers for. Though I have thought about painting them too, I really like the idea of fabric better. One I found a few years back for only a $1.99 at a local thrift store and the other off CL for $20.00. She was asking thirty. I wouldn't have paid the twenty had I not been looking so long for a wing with braces between the cabriol legs. If I can get my computer to stay on long enough to add pictures of them I'll come back and post them for you. I'm my hubby's laptop now.
~Becky

Becky I would love to see your chairs! :) We could turn this into a true chair love fest. :) hehehe

I've never thought of or heard of painting chairs! wow....how does that feel? I would think they would end up feeling rather stiff? I think I much prefer fabric. :)

A million years ago I belonged to a decorating board at BHG. It was there, that I first 'met' Magnaverde and was introduced to his talents. Below is a picture of a sofa in his home, followed by his instructions on how he painted it. If it had come from almost any other source, I'd never have bothered saving it all these years. I haven't done it yet but I'm sure someday there will be an opportunity to try this technique on something. The mention of Picturesworth at the end is another old, old site. Kinda makes you rethink painted furniture, doesn't it?

Here's the process, as I originally described it on the AOL Decorating Board last year, and where the original post was unearthed from the AOL archives by the lovely and talented HOST HOME DECOR. She's the best.
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Forget all that nonsense about teensy bottles of expensive paint medium from the crafts store. You don't need anything more than regular latex semi-gloss paint--and a lot of guts. I found a beautiful Baker Chippendale camelback sofa, with cool curved arms and a fat down cushion, but it was covereed in a hideous glazed chintz in the ugliest colors I ever saw. I found some great yellow wool damask to reupholster with, but it would have cost me $3OOO for the job, so I painted my sofa instead.

Everyone freaked out when I told then the plan, but it worked. I was planning on painting my room dark green, so I decided to go with the red leather look. First, I painted the whole thing with bubblegum pink semigloss latex paint, using the widest foam brush I could find, and brushing it on in long strokes front-to-back and up + down. Think of that as the primer coat. I let it dry 2 days, and sanded it super lightly with fine-grade sandpaper to get rid of the burrs--there were a lot. When I couldn't feel any more sharp things, another coat of paint, spread thin. Dried and sanded again. Then spread--with my hands--a thin coat of raspberry red semi-gloss paint I had deadened a little with brown to make it a little less vivid. Because it was a deep color, there wasn't much white filler in the paint, and it was almost like a glaze or stain, instead of paint, which is just what I wanted anyway. I just smoothed it on, like suntan oil, and worked it into the pink paint. I let it build a little thicker at the back, on the inside of the arms and at the back edge of the loose cushion, so that the paler, thinner red took on an air of wear at the high points. I let it dry 2 days, then CAREFULLY sanded the few new sharp things, and touched up those spots with my fingers. I let it dry 2 days, then waxed the whole thing with regular paste wax. After it was dry, I polished with a soft cloth, then dusted with talcum, and vacuumed it all off. It was a little stiff the first few days, but now it not only looks like red leather, it feels like it.

This worked great on glazed chintz, and probably would work on any smooth fabric, except that some may have more burrs and therefore require more sanding, but I wouldn't try it on anything with a heavy texture. And no, the paint doesn't come off. And it's not stiff, either. Think about it--it's latex paint, and essentially, that's what's in those little bottles of fabric medium.

By the way if anyone finds this topic before he or she finds the picture that shows the finished results, it's over in the PicturesWorth album, probably at the bottom of the pile, in MAGNAVERDE'S SCRAPBOOK. Have fun.
Magnaverde."

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For those who STILL don't think you can do it and who need a little pep talk before you start, go to magnaverde.com and look for the link that says 'consult magnaverde'--and I'll talk you through it. It will cost you a few dollars, but of course, my advice is priceless. And besides, I'm cheaper than a new sofa. You can talk to me and then go out for coffee. Good luck.

wow. That's nuts! I wish there were closer up pictures! Thank you though for posting that. I've never heard of such a thing, but it makes sense how he went about it! very cool!