Chair Lift

Artist Val Mastrianni shares how to give an old chair a fresh new look.

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Filed under: Chairs, Color, How To

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Whether you're redecorating an entire living room or simply adding a little life back into an existing decorating theme, you can do it easily by just updating old chairs. Artist Val Mastrianni shares how to give an old chair a fresh new look.

Various primary colors are combined to highlight the chair's construction and also make it usable in a variety of rooms, like a kitchen and child's room.

A musical theme was used to dress up the first chair. Painting most of the chair white and black makes the clef shape the focal point. Mastrianni burned the edges of sheet music and adhered the pieces to the flat surfaces with white glue. An application of varnish is the finishing touch.

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Mastrianni thought the back in the second chair resembled a tree trunk so she went with that theme by painting the top with green metallic paint.

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She also cut an interesting design in the seat, painted it and added lettering in the four corners.

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This chair was previously used in a surgical setting. The leather and structure give off a masculine look so Mastrianni introduced a cowboy and cow theme. The back features a wallpaper cutout of cowboy boots adhered with glue and varnish.

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Mastrianni thought this chair looked French and feminine so she painted it with pearlescent paint and embellished with crystals. To create the interesting effect on the seat, she painted it lavender then placed a piece of old lace on top and spray-painted it white.