Saturday, May 14, 2011

Spring Has Sprung!

     I love fall and spring.  There's something special about these transition seasons.  In the spring, we've got an opportunity to get out of our winter slumps and enjoy life.  It's opening the windows and feeling refreshed with the chill of the wind.  It's seeing the little flowers creep out of the ground and a new life.  It's hearing the little birds chirp in the morning. . .well I don't really like this part!  I hate that they now wake me up with their 4:30 little alarm clock tweeting.
     Anyway, I do love spring.  Planting flowers and doing yard work is my favorite part.  Maybe not the hard work yard work per say.  But I enjoy watching my house and myself make a transition.  Each spring, I get really excited about flowers.  I am not a green thumb, so unfortunately most of them don't make it past June.  But in May they look REALLY good!
     This year, I decided to try something different with my flowers.  Last year a neighbor was throwing away an old chair.  When I saw it, I knew I wanted it.  And unlike most junk that I grab, I knew exactly what I was going to do with this chair.
     Not all of my ideas actually turn out as good as they look in my brain!  But I'm in LOVE with this one!
Please ignore the mess under the chair.  Cleaning up the rocks is next on my very long to-do list.

     So back to the chair.  It was U-G-L-Y (you aint' got no alibi, you ugly, what what, you ugly). . .  back to the chair. . . The chair was ugly but it had a lot of potential.  I stored it in the garage and just got it out.  I first had to clean it up a bit.  I sanded the rough parts and scraped off any of the peeling paint.
See how U-G-L-Y it is?


     After it was sanded, I knew that I needed to prime it.  I didn't want the black paint showing through.  So I got some white spray paint and got to work.  At this point the hubby got the camera and started showing off his mad photography skills!
Notice how he cut my head off!  I hope that's not a Freudian slip!
     It took quite a few coats of the white primer to cover up the black.  After it was dry, came the difficult part.  Choosing the new color!  I went to the store and had a really hard time!  Seriously.  I love blue, but didn't think that it would look good with our trim.  I found a really pretty green, but that would only blend in the house.  Tough decision.  If only all of my decisions in life were of this caliber!  I eventually decided to go with Krylon's Watermelon in gloss.



How could you decide with this many options?

     Using the Krylon paint, I just went right over the primer.  I wanted the chair to look nice, so I sprayed in short even strokes.  I didn't want it getting goopy, so I had to tell my little helpers that they couldn't do this project!  I got some sad puppy dog looks, but oh well.  Later I found a few other things that needed a little "sprucing up!"  The kids got to help with those projects.


     I'm really loving how this turned out.  The flowering basket was a little small for the hole in the chair.  So I took a little bit of scrap wood and stuck it in behind the flowers.  Tada!!

By the way, the flower came from M&L Greenhouse in Albany, WI.  Beautiful flowers with excellent prices.

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6 comments :

  1. okay I am loving this chair flower basket... LOVE. i am going to be looking for a chair that I can do this too. So cute. The pink chair with the yellow flowers is just perfect. Sweet!
    I followed you. Would you come over to my blog and follow me? Looking forward to seeing more awesome ideas!

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  2. Such a fun color and the yellow flowers look fabulous! Such a neat idea. Thanks so much for linking to the Sunday Showcase Party - I greatly appreciate it. I have featured this today. Enjoy the rest of your week ~ Stephanie Lynn
    www.bystephanielynn.com

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  3. The pink chair looks fabulous with the bright yellow flowers. Bright and happy colors....love it.

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  4. So bright and colorful, love the yellow again the red! :) I've featured this post on Craft Gossip here:
    http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/plant-chair/

    If you would like a "featured by" button, you can grab one here:
    http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/grab-a-craft-gossip-button/

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  5. Love this! I would love to feature this on Reduce, Reuse, Upcycle. Feel free to stop by and grab a featured button. Thanks!

    http://reuseandupcycle.blogspot.com

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