Neighbors across the street moved and left this adorable child's chair beside the road for trash pick up.  I kept looking out of my window for several hours.  There was also a child's settee.  I knew that I did not want to reupholster these items, but there had to be 'something' that could be done to salvage them.  There was no real damage other than wear and tear, stains and dirt.  I brought them into my garage and 'kinda' hid them from my husband.  HE has NO real love for my 'collecting treasures and restoring them'.  He might be if I sold them, but I fall in love with them and always seem to have 'just' the right place in the house for them!

This chair had lint balls on the seat and armrests.  Easily taken care of with one of those handheld machines that eat lint! My latest paint obsession is the sea glass collection, for this project I chose a sea green color that I made into a chalk paint.

My chalk paint recipe is simple, found it on the internet and have been using it for a few years now.  There are other recipes, I have tried them but always gone back to this one. 

My Plaster of Paris Chalk Paint Recipe (from a website I enjoy: www.diyhomeinterior.com)  There is a TON of info on that site!

1 – 8-ounce pot of paint (this is 1 cup)

2 1/2 tablespoons of Plaster of Paris

2 tablespoons of cold water

Mix the plaster and water into a small plastic dish and stir it up with a spoon until smooth, the consistency will be like pancake batter. Then pour straight into the paint and stir until completely mixed into the paint.

The paint I use to pour the plaster mixture into is sample paint pots from Lowe's, Home Depot, Michael's, Hobby Lobby.  They are all water clean up acrylic paints. Once you are satisfied with your paint mixture creation, grab a brush and begin painting!  On this chair I painted one coat, let it dry overnight and used a light sandpaper block to go over the entire chair.  This took some of the 'STIFF' feel away.  Second coat covered any flaw that was left and when dry I did lightly sand the chair again.  I did not put a finish on this, I am still debating if I need it or not.  

The finished product is on the right side.  I did paint purple hibiscus flowers and then I took a paint brush and 'slung' purple paint all over to create a unique design.  Painting the ruffle on this was not as difficult as I thought, although, this is not a chair one would enjoy sitting in (unless you are a doll or stuffed animal).  It does have a stiff feel.  Extremely pleased with how it turned out, so much in fact that there was also a child size settee that I did with lavender paint and then took bright metallic gold spray paint. Sprayed it very concentrated in one spot on a plastic grocery bag and with another plastic grocery bag wadded up, dipped into the gold paint and dabbed it all over the settee.  You should do this in a well-ventilated area and wear a mouth/nose mask is not a bad idea.  Do not be afraid to try this, if it had not of turned out well, I would simply have taken it back out to the road for the original trash pick up!  Enjoy!