From Hideous to Harmonious!

On a wet Saturday morning last spring, Mindy wanted to stop by the yard sale some of her softball teammates were having. No ordinary yard sale, this was a sale to benefit Breast Cancer Research. The ladies were raising their money for the Susan G. Komen 3 day 60 mile walk they were participating in and we wanted to help in our own small way by shopping at their yard sale.  Rain did not deter these enthusiastic walkers, they had received donations from many people in their community and they had a yard FULL of stuff! We found a few little items, Mindy scored a beautiful Jasper Johns American Flag poster for her house, and as we were preparing to leave I spotted a very unusual little folding chair.

Unusual? Or Hideous? I was intrigued by the lovely Lyre back and the sturdy frame and the way if folded so handily…. but BRIGHT GREEN AND RED? It was like a Christmas experiment gone horribly wrong. The garish bright green paint had been globbed on, the seat had been unscrewed from the frame covered in red vinyl and NAILED back on to the frame! (Why anyone would do that is beyond me-lost the screws maybe? I dunno…) I paid for the chair and wondered all the way home, WHY, other than it was a worthy cause, did I make such a weird purchase?

Upon closer inspection I learned this little vintage chair was manufactured by the Stakmore Folding Chair Company. They specialize in permanent looking folding tables and chairs and have been in business since 1922! The Lyre back on this particular chair is particularly pretty but it was desecrated by the horrible paint job. It sat in the shed for several months, and then suddenly I was hit with a vision and knew exactly what I would do.

The Lyre (harp) back on the chair just kept making me think of a music room, a “salon” perhaps in Paris? Didn’t I see a lovely fabric on Ebay? I did! The stripping, painting, waxing, antiquing, and buffing ensued, taking the odd little green and red chair from hiding in the shed to the spotlight, ready for her solo.