Louis chair refurbish

I'm a big fan of these lovely Louis style chairs and you might remember that I refurb'd one last year. Well, it didn't stay around for long - in fact, it sold within an hour of being placed in the shop! I'd love to do more because they're so popular but getting hold of them is not easy. However….I was lucky enough to find another and here's it's story...

You can see it was covered in my 'favourite' orange varnish - don't get me started on WHY people would want to use this stuff - and some rather nasty old velour so all of that had to come off...

and after a LOT of scraped knuckles and broken nails, I managed to get all the original studs and staples out and finished the chair in Old White ASCP and some clear wax.

The fabric is a plain cotton so it will fit into any interior and I used an off white trim and a few accent upholstery studs to stop it being too bland.

The back is nicely finished too so it could be placed in the middle of a room.

It's off to Afterglow of Olney as soon as there is a space and I hope someone will love it as much as I do!

Repurposing old travelling trunks

Over time I've seen (and collected) quite a few lovely old travelling trunks and the best use I've found for them is to repurpose them as coffee tables with masses of storage.

This was the first one I attempted and it went off to France to live in the converted barn belonging to  a friend...

recently I transformed this one with some lovely cabriole legs I took off an old stool.

It sold very quickly, as soon as it went into my space at Afterglow of Olney…

And this one has just gone into the shop. It's a lovely example with lots of history as it belonged to a Masonic Institute of Learning. I found some old documents detailing this and left them inside for the new owners to see…

I have one more lovely old trunk in my workshop and it's just waiting for the right legs to come along before it too joins the gang!

Let me know if you like them?