Rocking around the Nursery

A few months ago I inherited my grandmother's rocking chair.  They were no longer using it and she thought I may want it for the baby.

Right-o grammy.

I knew that I would use it, so I snagged it and it has been stuck in the corner of my sewing room (also known as the room of many chairs, also known as the nursery) for many months, just waiting for it's turn in the spotlight.

I have very fond memories of rocking in that chair in her living room, and there is something very soothing about the motion of a rocking chair. 

I finally started cleaning out that room this week (that's where I have been), so I could paint the walls and bring in the baby furniture.  I think the nesting part of pregnancy is finally kicking in (nothing like less than 2 weeks to accomplish everything).

While I was cleaning things out of the room, I got distracted with the rocking chair, and decided to stop what I was doing and do a rocking chair overhaul.

So I slid the rocking chair down the stairs (its well over my weight limit these days), and took it outside.

I'm sure if someone could have seen me trying to wrestle that chair down two flights of stairs it would have made a good submission to America's Funniest Home Videos.  Ketchum was very confused and he kept trying to get under the chair while I was sliding it along the carpet.  Then trying to get it slid down the stairs without me, the chair and the dog going down, that was fun.

But, I successfully slid it down and out onto the deck, then out onto a left over pallet from our fence build that was in process.  The only "heavy lifting" was to scooch the chair up onto the pallet to get it ready for the makeover.

I had picked up some spray paint a few days before while we were at Lowes.  It was on a whim and I wasn't really sure of the color or that I even wanted to paint the chair, but for $3 it was worth the chance so I wouldn't have to drive back when I decided what I wanted.
I figured it couldn't hurt to paint the chair and see if I liked it.  Worst case, I could paint it again with another color.

The rocking chair was quite old and had a very intricate design that wasn't quite my style.  It also had a THICK clear coat on it, that was NOT coming off.

Seriously, I could have sanded until my arms fell off and the clear coat would have still be completely in tact.

So I took the lazy, sweaty, pregnant route, and bought a "no sand" primer spray and went to town.
 
Thankfully the backyard was in shade and a light breeze was blowing, which made this over-heated soon-to-be-mom VERY happy.  I got on some gloves and a very attractive respirator and went to town with the white primer.

Luckily it covered extremely well, and even took away the design without much work.
I am incredibly impatient, so as soon as I was done priming, I wanted to get a coat of paint on.  It took all my will power to walk away from it for 20 minutes to give it time to cure before slapping on the new paint.

I only had bought one can of paint, not knowing how much paint the chair would require.  1 can = not enough paint. 

 

 

So I got 80% done with the chair and had to drag it in for the night (down more stairs) into the basement.  There was no way I was carrying it back up into the kitchen, especially since I had pretty much perfected the art of "sliding."

After another 2 coats of paint (nearly 2 more cans) and a good coat of clear, I am quite pleased with how this guy turned out.




I really need to make some cushions for the chair.  I haven't quite figured out what the cushions will look like.

Oh, and my sewing room is completely dismantled, which means I won't be sewing until I set up my new sewing area in the guest room.

So, until then, I have a rocking chair that is ready to go into the nursery (with or without cushions).

Did you notice that the yellow is a nod to Husky colors?  If you didn't, you clearly haven't been paying attention.

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