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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Chair Hording

Grandma Dickey was a hoarder. I know this term has become cliche, but she really was one. In fact, I had the honor of cleaning out her house at one point (This was prior to the myriad of shows about this topic).
The the hording gene runs deep. Mr.Dickey has some tendencies and if left unchecked, my dear Delia would be a potential candidate for her own episode. I jest, but admit at times our garage and storage areas can look a bit hordish.
This summer I kept picking up chairs from various "sources". My plan was to paint them and resell them. At the height of my collecting I had 21. Yep, 21 random wooden chairs. Summer slipped away and I never got around to fixing up the chairs. The chairs, for the most part, were under a tarp behind my garage eaves. You can insert hillbilly jingles here.
A few weeks ago I acquired some awesome fabric for a song. It was Frenchy love. I finally found my painting mojo and painted a chair with Sherwin Williams Watery and my chalk paint formula. I gave it a coat of  Annie Sloan wax, recovered the seat and posted her on Craigslist.



 My ad stated I had four more unfinished chairs that I could customize, or paint to match the one posted. Within a few hours I had several inquiries. They wanted all the chairs, but preferred them left alone.

The first responder arranged to pick them up. I threw in the fabric (she had asked about it) as well. I waited as long as I could for her to arrive, but alas Les Miserables was calling my name so Mr.Dickey was put in charge.
The buyer arrived and as my husband was helping her load up her truck she began to inquire about my horde of furniture in the garage. He called me and over the phone I sold a desk and mirror. I had big plans for them, but I also have big plans to park my car in the garage soon. I could almost hear the psychologist from the store coaxing me through the sale...wait it was cash talking.
I am down to 12 chairs. One is on my agenda for this week, two will be gussied up for Delia's playhouse (our goal is to have it ready to go by her birthday on March 25th), and the rest mmmmmm?




7 comments:

  1. Sounds like you did alright. Good luck fixing up the other chairs for Delia's playhouse.

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  2. I tried to follow, but blogger issues won't allow!

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  3. Cute post. Your chair turned out lovely, what pretty fabric. For a while there this summer, I had quite a few chairs kicking around, too. It's just hard to pass up a good deal, isn't it!

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  4. It's very pretty! I think there are many of us crafters that totally GET the hoarding thing. My husband would tell you I am, but I did have some help from my dad, who purchased quite a few of the pieces for me.

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  5. How can a person pass up a great possibility to fix a piece up? It doesn't matter if it sits for awhile, you have to have the right feeling for what you're going to do to enhance it further. That's not hoarding, it's taking advantage of an opportunity. So on that note, wish I could have that chair with the chickens on it. I have a thing for chairs also. Is that the fabric you gave the lady that bought the chairs? I'm so jealous.
    I must start paying more attention to what's listed Craigs list.
    So great you sold more pieces on top of chairs. One great thing about cell phones, be able to grab the moment.

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