Ever notice how a coat of crisp, white paint can totally jazz up an item like nobody’s business??  So simple.  So basic.   But absolutely transformative.   That’s exactly how I feel about our bedroom chair right now.  A coat of white made all the difference in the room.  But, let’s start from the beginning…  remember in this post, I showed this corner of our bedroom??

And due to the abundance of conflicting brown tones between the dresser and chair, I posed the question as to whether I should paint the chair or simply spring for a new one?   The vast majority of feedback that I received was that I should paint this badboy…  But, I just wasn’t ready.  After publishing that post, I hemmed and hawed (and otherwise procrastinated) as I continued to shop for The Chair Of My Dreams, just to be sure.   I scoured Craigslist, nearby thrift stores, garage sales… But, nada.

My inner battle was that the chair’s finish was pretty as-is.   It just didn’t go with the room.   And, unfortunately, I didn’t have another place to stash it.   So, I questioned whether I should sell the chair to someone who liked it as it was versus change the finish.   Ya see, I’m kind of a wood purist… I have trouble painting wood-toned things unless the current finish is unsalvageable or horrendously ugly.

Then, one day, I gave the chair a thorough cleaning and realized that the finish wasn’t as great as previously thought.  There were scuffs, splits and missing pieces as shown below (sorry for the blurry pic)…

And this was the deciding factor for me….   The Chair Would Be Painted.

I began by taping off the legs as seen in this Instagram shot (it’s the only pic I have of this step)…

 

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the legs, but I knew that I didn’t want them to be white.  Next, I thoroughly wiped down the wicker with this deglosser to rough up the surface and prepare it for primer…

 

Next came priming.  I had to paint the chair inside due to weather, so instead of my usual shellac primer go-to, I chose Kilz Premium primer since it’s low VOC (ie: MUCH less stinky).  I started with a small nubby roller since the chair’s weave was pretty flat (and I wanted to see if I could get away with it)…

 

It covered pretty well, but still left some gaps where the weave intertwined.

There was definite yellow bleed-through with the first coat of primer and after learning the hard way while painting my eight dollar chairs, I knew that a second primer coat was an absolute MUST.  That is, unless I wanted my paint to show bleed-through as well.   I applied the second coat with a brush to ensure that I covered all the nooks and crannies…

  I waited until the primer was fully dry then reinspected for bleed through.  I found a few spots like this…

So, those spots got a third coat.   At this point, I started to see glimpses of what the final result would look like. The modern lines of the chair were really starting to stand out with the new white color (which *might* have caused me to jump up and down excitedly whilst sing-songing “Why didn’t I do this sooner??”…  Always a good sign halfway through a project). 😉

Next, I caulked some of the more obvious holes in the wicker since they pretty much stuck out like sore thumbs after priming…

 

Once the caulk was dry, I applied 2 coats of Sherwin Williams Proclassic in extra white semi-gloss, which I had leftover from when I painted our foyer cabinets.   I used a 2 1/2 inch angled brush as I found this worked best in covering all the grooves in the wicker.  I removed the tape, and after a quick evaluation, decided to simply leave the legs their original color.

And here’s the final result…

It’s EXACTLY what I was hoping for. EXACTLY. Crisp, white, glossy, modern-looking. And most importantly, although it shines in its own right, it recedes back visually in the whole scheme of the room to allow Drex and our new artwork to take center stage. It amazes me how every time I walk in our bedroom now, I have a new appreciation (and admiration) for our beautiful mid-century dresser, whereas before it just kind of blended into the sea of brown.  Observe…

And a before shot…

And a WAY before shot…

Our master bedroom has come a long way so far, in my opinion!  I like how the room has progressively gotten lighter and brighter.   It puts me in a good mood every time I walk in there.

On a final note… we’re finally back from our third and final trip (…for the month. So strange.) and things should be getting back to normal soon.   This weekend, Lucas and I drove down to Austin to meet Joey since he was already down there for a work training.  It was really fun to take Lucas on a trip… and Austin is just awesome anyways.   It’s hilly and wooded… you almost forget that you’re in Texas!   We hit up some of our favorite restaurants… Trudy’s , Hula Hut, and we were introduced to The Bouldin Creek Cafe which was delish (especially for a gluten-free person like me).   We drove around a lot… looking at all the beautiful houses and scenery (I was too spell-bound with all of the gorgeous, full-o’-character homes to actually take pictures of them, unfortunately).    In any case, now that we’ve returned, I’ll be getting back to my usual schedule.  So, anyways, thanks as usual for stopping by and I hope ya’ll have a great week!!  🙂

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Linked up at:  Home Stories A to Z, Home Coming, Tatertots & Jello, Lines Across, I Should Be Mopping The Floor