Oh How I Heart My Rocking Chair... X

I have fallen head over heels for my new rocking chair.... Believe it or not but I found this beauty in a Thrift Store looking quite sad and sorry for itself. As I approached this little gem I immediately saw its potential. Stupidly enough I was so busy and excited restoring it that I didn't take any pictures of it in its sorry little state (Probably for the best though......as it would make the hardest soul shed a teary tear....As I approached it I swear it was rocking back and fourth in a whirlwind of tumble weed).

So anyway one quick trip to the thrift store, £15 out of my pocket, chair shoved in car and home we go...!

As I take the chair into the house I am visualising paint shades, fabric prints for perhaps a cushion, a lifetime of rocking! I am so unbelievably excited and full of wonder at this poor little chair. I get on it straight away and spend the afternoon shedding its skin with a sander and with each stroke I see that this chair is going to be the envy of all chairs.

I decided to paint the chair in a bright white satin paint (I contemplated a Devonshire cream but I feel a bright white shade would bring this chair out and make any room that graced it look lovely and fresh and full of spring!) I’m thinking Shabby Chic!

I also spent hours trawling the internet looking for a suitable fabric for the cushion...I wanted something in a Laura Ashley / Cath Kidston style print but clearly not one to follow the herd I wanted something completely different and to almost give the impression that I had broken in to granny's house, stolen her curtains and made a delightful cushion out of it! And I think the globaltex fabric I choose completely works. I purchased this beautiful medium weight fabric for £3.99 per meter. This unique print incorporates large floral clusters consisting of a pair of peonies, with small clusters of flowers and leaves on a gorgeous duck egg blue back ground and just looks exactly like what I envisioned...actually I tell a fib, having bought this online and being too cocky to read the measurement of the print in the description I expected exactly what I saw in the photo and was slightly shocked when the postman bought a package with my fabric wrapped up nicely and the print was x10000 bigger hehe but all is ok because luckily I quite like this style just the same.

So I bought some thick foam from the foam shop..(I'm not sure if everyone is lucky enough to have a foam shop or whether we are the lucky ones or whether it is a national, international, multi national thing. for everyone to have a foam shop....I just don't know so if you haven't seen one in your local town than have a look on the internet as there are lots of places selling foam.) For a bargain at £5 (+ 50p charge for using card as I had no cash...Eeek!!)

So with everything I needed at the ready and the chair all prepped and ready to go...I set about making this chair beautiful again. I slapped a white coat on the chair and left to dry in the garden, whilst I broke into grannies not to steal her curtains but to beg her to help me make a professional looking cushion with zip. Luckily enough for me she wasn't too alarmed, she put the kettle one and set about showing me how to make my cushion. Now I can use my sewing machine and quite well but I am a beginner and tend to do things unconventionally and yes most of the time muff it up, I am an experimenter, extraordinaire, alchemist trying to make something out of nothing so on this occasion I thought it only sensible to get Nan to show me the ropes and hopefully make me a gorgeous, mind blowing, most comfortable, well fitting, pretty cushion.... and she did...within minutes! She cut the template out of newspaper for the foam, worked out a few seam allowances, and clippty clapped a zip in!!! I was so impressed and I have taken what I have learnt (from the best.... She used to make shoes for Clarke’s, she does loads of alterations for people in the town and she started off stitching up dead bodies in the morgue...I tell no lies, she is Pro-Fesh!) And promise in the near future to make one of my own with all the gold dust advice she gave to me!! But I think this is fine, this is what life is all about, learning from others, taking what you need, giving what you have and adapting it in your own little way...this is what make the world go round...so don't be down hearted if you need a little help, feel lucky that you can learn and are not scared to.

So Walla, shazam, puff…...Here is my Rocker....I am so happy...She is called Robyn...Robyn the Rocker....and she is perfect in her own pre loved way...She is by no means perfect but who is? She is just lovely and that is all that matters! (For the more technical bit all in all she cost a grand total of £25 to buy and make all in all.....BARGAIN!!

(P.s As Robyn has obvious signs of previous Loving…Like a few dents and dings here and there I cleverly distressed her with a bit of sand paper after I had painted her (Crazy?!) so she looks old and worn yet fresh and lovely…this all adds to the shabby chic charm I was going for!)

After having taken on this project I have been wondering who would ever want to buy something from a catalogue, something that is exactly the same as everyone else’s, something that is off a conveyor belt, out of the factory, mass made for the masses when you can adapt, adjust, refurbish, restore, renovate to make something one off, something that ONLY YOU will have and something that will make everyone come in to your home slightly envious and Say...Where did you buy this, where can I get one?

LOVE LOIE X X