A Free Printable Pattern For A Celebration Of My Whimsical Chair

Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

                                                                                        ~Norman MacEwan

Can I tell you how excited I am?  I'M BEYOND THRILLED!  It may be no big thing to you, but one of my original pins on Pinterest has been repined 1000 times and counting.  And the funny thing is, this item was created by me without much thought to it.  

I did a blog post on my whimsical chair three years ago.  You can read more about it here.  My inspiration came from these great looking tea towels I bought for some other purpose, but I ended up folding them over a rod in the cottage bathroom (Did you read that!  Just FOLDED over the rod, as in no sewing!)...

I'm sure my chair has be cloned over and over, but I know I have the one and only original!  Today, with the internet and all the social media, it's really difficult to prevent people from sharing and copying what you have put hours into.  

So needless to say, I'm more than happy to share the details of this chair, especially to those of you who need encouragement and instructions on how to do this.  Even though something like this is beyond easy for me, I'm sure some of you have no idea where to begin.  

Click to download PDF of Whimsical Flower   

  

Click to download PDF of Flowers & Leaves       

• Obviously, the first thing is to find an old chair.  It can come from someone's trash, flea market, garage sale, or as in this case, an estate sale.  I first saw it in an attic and it was in such rough shape.  I seriously didn't pay more than a couple of dollars for it.
• It already had been painted and not knowing whether it was lead paint or not, I chose not to sand it, but painted a good primer over everything. 
• It also didn't have a seat.  Only the holes where caning had once been.  NOTE TO SELF, remember to take before photos!  I made a pattern and Mr. Cottage cut the new seat from plywood.  FYI, I just used newspaper taped together to make a pattern. 
• I wanted a bright red, but you can choose any color you want.  I used craft paint that you can find at Michael's in the paint aisle.  
• I wanted my painted chair to be simple, so I didn't want details in the leaves and flowers.  SIMPLE is by far the easiest way for anything you do.

For the chair seat, I simply started painting, but I've provided you with a printout above.  I don't usually use patterns.  When you're ready to add the printout pattern to your chair, you'll want to use either graphite or transfer paper, which you can get from any craft store...

I decided to add a stem and leaves (any shade of green you want to use) and started it at the flower and worked my way down one of the legs.  Afterwards, I went back and did the leaves, both on the seat and on the legs...

My chair back happened to be curved, but many are straight.
I started by finding the center and painted the first flower, then measured and painted the other two flowers.  I can't give  actual inches, because each chair is different.  Again, any color can be used for your flowers.  I used a fine paintbrush to draw a line from one end to the other and then went back and added the leaves.  I made the swirl in each flower, again with a fine paintbrush.  If you're new to painting, or even it you're not, I don't use expensive paintbrushes when I paint with craft or acrylic paints.  Click here to see what would be great to use.  See, cheap!  I've got the same ones and they work just great...

I'm not one who normally likes wild painted furniture, but I did decide to add the black and white stripes along the tops of the ladder backs and around the edge of my large flower on the seat.  I just used white craft paint and then I went back and painted the stripes in black...

After you've finished painting your chair, go back and put two coats of craft varnish over everything to help protect your painting.  And don't forget to sign your chair.  You can do so on top of the seat in one lowered corner, or as I did under the seat.  Make sure to always rinse out your brushes after using. I keep mine in a container of water until I can take them to a sink.  Then I rinse like a crazy woman and finally put a touch of soap on the brush and gently rub in and rinse again.  If you do this, your cheap brushes can last for months and months, and sometimes, even years.

For your printables, please note that after you print them, you may have to make a copy of them and adjust the size of the flowers and leaves with your printer, so they'll fit on your chair to the size you want.  For the seat flower, I drew in lines for the black and white stripes to show you the direction they should be in.  You don't want your stripes to be on an unintentional slant.  So this is just a guide for you to follow.

I'd love to see some of your chairs.  If you paint any, just upload your photo and share it on Instagram at #theredpaintedcottageideas .   I'd love to share them on my blog.

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