thoughts on defacing a classic and the voices in your head

"Paint me".  I couldn't resist.  

I had to deface the classic natural Breuer Cesca chair with paint.  The little voice in my head, or maybe it was my gut, was chiming in and I was scared.  "But it's an iconic chair!"  

This led me to an internal debate as to whether anything was sacred and off limits to paint for me. 

I felt bad for a bit because I realized that besides the living and breathing,

 I really couldn't think of anything I wouldn't paint.  

And besides these were knock offs, right?  So there was nothing to lose financially.

(They were less than $20 a chair, so my kids can trash them- and they will- 

and I won't freak out and have a nutty like this...)

   

But what if they were the real deal?  Would that matter?  

It would definitely have me weighing my options more,

 but in the end it probably wouldn't.  

I have a bad tendency to "hyper focus" on little details like color flow and pattern and it drives me crazy.  I am always in edit mode, which explains while I am constantly painting and sewing and my house is in project mode 24/7.  

I can't leave well enough alone and even if something is damn near perfect I will think "I wonder if..."

I'm sick.  I consider it a form of design mental illness.  

In this case the chairs, table and floors were just a big sea of wood tone. It needed to be broken up, and painting the chairs would create a floor/table buffer.  If I kept them, I would be bored to tears, and end up painting my table or floors.  See what I mean?

 I guess I am not a purist or a traditionalist in this area, so I quickly squelched my guilty feelings and got to painting.  But not before consulting social media first.

 I Insta- FB'd this:

I was so intrigued by the outcome.  The Facebook consensus for the most part was "NO paint!" while Instagram was all "paint them bitches!"  Two camps.  Obviously this didn't help in my decision making, and if anything it had me thinking I might be doing the wrong thing.

 I had to consult my Magic 8 Ball...Google.

Did you know there are VERY few images of these chairs painted out there that can be found using keywords on Google.  I did find partial paint jobs...

a little too cute for me:

 just arms, would be kind of cool if all my chairs had arms:

But no full monty.

 I was sure they were going to be fine, but you still always want the reassuring image that tells you "don't worry, it will be OK" and validate your craziness.  And since I couldn't really find any, that started me thinking "maybe Facebook knows something I don't".
And then like magic, Instagram offered up the magic link to Jenny's recent paint job

and the voices sang "Paint!" loud and clear.

 I took the plunge.   I found a half used cane of spray paint in a soft minty blue, and decided to give one chair a go.  Two coats and a layer of high gloss polyurethane later I had success,
 in my eyes at least:

It just felt so much fresher, and better suited to my style.

And isn't that what decorating is all about?

I have some tips for anyone wanting to paint this style chair. You are definitely going to want to spray these because any type of caning or wicker just invites drip marks if you use a brush.

First off, prep.

Unscrew the backs and seats from the chrome base.  Make sure they are clean and lightly sand the wood edges to give your paint something to stick too.  I used 150 grit paper.

Wipe off dust when done.  I gave them a coat of Krylon primer and let them dry.

If your chrome frames were looking rough like mine were,

 give them a quick polish by rubbing away any grime and pitting with fine steel wool.

My husband taught me this trick...

Freaking magic! And easy!

They were gleaming like new.

I ran out of spray paint after my first chair (it was just suppose to be a test- and I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did).  The color was VERY close to Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue.  I had used that color in a high gloss for my front door, and still had about a pint left.  I had an idea...

I had a Preval Sprayer on hand that I picked up from True Value for a future project.

I decided to test it on these chairs.  Bonus- instant gratification.

Here is the skinny on the Preval Sprayer... It allows you to turn your own paint into spray paint.

The sprayer cost $5.99, and additional cartridge refills were $4.99.  Pricewise, it is right in line with regular spray paint, but the square foot coverage was 4x greater than a regular can. 

It is a great solution for small projects.

Cheap and genius, with less noxious fumes!

I followed the directions and thinned my paint out according to the ratio suggested on the box, shook the mixture up and added the spray cap.   

I was ready to roll! 

The thinning part is very important.  At first I added less water because I really thought it would dilute the paint too much- but I was wrong. I found the sprayer clogging almost instantly.  I added more water and was back in business.

Here are some important tips to get the hang of this tool.

-wear gloves, my hands got filthy with overspray since I was holding the seats to ensure a good angle.

-the metal spray cartridge gets VERY cold, so you might want to wear a thin winter glove under your rubber glove too

-don't tilt the sprayer beyond 45 degrees. This is a bit of a pain and takes some getting used to, but there is an air vent at the top that easily gets clogged if glass bottle at the bottom is too full or tips too far.

see the tiny vent hole?

-if the air vent clogs, simply unscrew the top part from the glass bottom and rinse off.

I kept a cup off water nearby to swish it clean, and I also cleared the nozzle by dipping the uptake straw into it and spraying water through.

-since the paint is thinned it was much runnier than usual, and I put too much on at first which lead to drip marks.  Just like regular spray paint, it will take some getting used to to get the right amount on without drips.  I needed 2 coats in all.

my mess o' drips

To fix my drip marks, I let it dry and then sanded it down and repainted those spots.

I used cups and empty paint cans to lift the seat backs up so I can paint opposite sides quicker and get a cleaner edge.

When I ran out of gas (the cartridge that is) I just pulled it out and pooped in a new one.

Best part is the cartridge comes with a new uptake straw and nozzle, so nothing ever gets too clogged.

I seriously love the fact that I can make spray paint whenever I want.

Mwahahahaha- like an alchemist I tell you!

Once it dried I reattached the seats to the chrome bases and was done!

As you can see, my renovation is still far from being done- but that will start up once the kids return to school next week.  Painting, window treatments and finish carpentry coming soon- as well as a crazy light fixture for over this table. 

So, I need to know... what would you have done?

Paint or purist?