Pretty Garden Chair – MMSMP ‘French Enamel’

A few weeks back I was delighted to pick up a bulk lot of unassembled, raw wood Balloon Chairs on our local Buy and Sell page. I had great ideas of restoring and upholstering them. But after I picked them up and got them home, I realised they were seconds.  Many of them didn’t fit together or were a little twisted.What to do, what to do! This is what they looked like…… I remembered an idea I had seen on Pinterest and set about attempting to make a ‘Garden Chair’. I screwed the pieces together and added some supports to make the chair sturdy. I decided on a blue and white theme for my ‘garden’ and my blue of choice was Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint ‘French Enamel’ – such a pretty blue! A couple of coats of the paint, sanding lightly in between and it looked fabulous! I used some medium grit sandpaper to distress a few areas to show through the honey coloured natural wood then gave it a couple of coats of Tung Oil to protect it from the weather. I did leave it 24 hours between coats, just to be sure each coat had a chance to soak in properly. After the final coat I wiped away any excess Tung Oil. You can see in these photos just what a difference the Tung Oil made to the colour….beautifully intensified and rich! I bought a planter liner from Mitre 10 and used long tacks to hold it secure. Add potting mix and some pretty spring flowers and voila! I chose white Pansies, white Snapdragons and white ‘Chrysanthemums’. I think it’s going to look amazing once the plants take off a bit!
I love the end result so much I have decided to make all 13 chairs into Garden Chairs and sell them as one of a kind unique Christmas gifts. So, one down and 12 to go! I’m now taking custom orders for the rest of the chairs – choose from the 18 Miss Mustard Seed paint colours and even choose your preferred flower colour. $99 per chair. If you’d like to learn to use Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint, our next workshop is just two weeks away on November the 8th on Phillip Island, Victoria. I also offer mail order if you’d like to try a sample pack for just $8 plus post. A sample packet is enough to paint a chair or a small side table.