Nice Stems

Once upon a time, I dragged a $5 chair up from my basement with the hopes of breathing new life into a corner of my kitchen. I liked the idea of what the chair could be, but it just wasn't quite able to meet my high hopes in it's current color state. 

My first thought was to be lazy and just try to spruce up the chair's legs, b/c obviously that's the true selling point of the piece...a la Christian's admiration for Cher's "stems" in Clueless {anyone?}.  

In the end, I knew I couldn't live with the entire look of the chair; the green just didn't go with the bright color scheme I have in the rest of the space and the base wasn't a great industrial metal, just sort of dirty and drab.  

Once I had decided that I wanted to paint the chair, I took the next logical step...checked out Pinterest for design inspiration. While I swooned over many shiny black chairs with gilded frames, I realized 2 things: 1. That certain color scheme wouldn't fit into my kitchen any better than the chair's current predicament and 2. I'm {again} lazy and cheap. I just wanted to be able to jump into painting...and at that particular moment, hadn't showered or dressed in 2 days. I was in no shape to leave the house.

Good thing I love the transformative powers of paint in all areas of my life; cut to me digging through the {seemingly} endless pile of paint cans in the basement. I landed on a very light grey for the base and teal for the seat itself.

Three coats of paint {minus the poly I still need to add} and this little chair adds some big impact to my kitchen vignette.

Never be afraid to put your own spin on your home. If you don't like how something looks, you don't have to spend a lot of money to change it...you just might have all the pieces you need to freshen it up right at your fingertips. Or in my case, your basement...I always check the basement.  

Stay Stylish,  

Hilary