February 7, 2012

the nursery

Whenever I wake up too early, I give myself half an hour to clear my mind and fall back asleep. It rarely works. Then I end up 'awake' for the day at four am, hungry and thinking about everything I'm going to do that day. Today was one of those days. So, I made popovers. They're still in the oven right now. I'll let you know how they turn out :)

After work today I'm going to pick up this rocking chair that I found at a local (favorite) thrift store. It looks like a vintage bentwood but I'm not getting my hopes up (wouldn't that be SO cool!!)

Yes, I know they were mass produced, yes, I know everyone refinishes them... yes, I still want one of my own. So anyway. The plan is to pick up the chair, pick up some seat-fixing supplies and paint, and spend the next three days making it perfect for rocking a baby to sleep..!

An update: The rocker was still there when I went to buy it today, so I brought it home and Auntie Panda and I had fun with the staple gun getting everything together. The funny thing is- the rocker looks exactly like that photo above! However, I'm sure there were a lot of similar chairs made. Regardless... I'm in love. So here's where we're at now. I cleaned up the wood, took the old seat chair and back out, stripped them of the old foam and weird carpet-fabric, and covered them with some 50/50 batting, 1" poly foam, and a turquoise and blue floral (or wheel?) patterned fabric. I was having a really hard time deciding which fabric to choose... and even after picking the blue one I went back and had another yard and a half of a different pattern cut. Just in case.




The other rocker in the background is my mother's. She wouldn't let me paint it, and I like the design of this one so much better. Plus, it will be nice for gramma to have a rocker when she's with the baby.

I really love this fabric because it has a 'timeless' appeal to it- it can go into multiple rooms: it can stay in a bedroom, it can go in a living room, it can be combined with a bright orange or yellow color palate or with blues and greens like it is in this room. I am so pleased.

Tomorrow, we paint. Another update then! Good night!

Last update: The chair is done! It was surprisingly difficult to paint because of all the very small corners made by the curved wood. I think it looks pretty good, being the first piece of furniture I've ever painted with a brush (before I used spray paint on a couple of things, it might have worked better with this chair!). I really like the way it looks, very fresh and new. I missed the wood for about.. an hour. What do you think?


Have a nice weekend everyone!

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