Can I paint my old office chair, Navy?

Do you ever just look at something and wonder, can I paint that? I do!

The Main Reason we are here today is for what we love: 'show and tell'!

How I painted my 15 year old "First Office Chair" (aww tear) from that classic old Cherry to a stunning Navy!

Feeling a bit nostalgic today. Typing this post using my new adorable keyboard that I got yesterday, while talking about my old (about to be "Grandma - Donated" and out the door) chair...how can I not be?

This keyboard has a cool old school typewriter, new edge, vibe...and its Pink!

I feel very "writer" like...A la January - Shakespeare - Socrates. Though, the long nails are not working so far...doubtful Hemingway had this issue!

Back to the topic...Can I paint that old chair navy? Or any color?

Before I started to really “paint” (I am only a 3 year, self educated, trial and errored DIY’er) I always thought I was stuck with something just being the way it came.

Budget raised by birth I am not one to throw money away. I know the value of a $1, and that knowledge, is value as well!

Also not one to buy new things if I don’t need to, discovering I could get “new stuff”, custom designed the way I wanted, for cheap…I enrolled myself as an honorary student of the DIY academy.

A little Paint, trust, and pixie dust!

Paint can transform just about anything…

The first attempt at painting with the Navy All-in-on paint on my half moon console table, led me to this....

Last weekend I organized my garage so I finally had a “work space” again…it had become piled up, as it does from time to time. I’m human too, promise! 😉

When i did my French country bedroom makeover, I bought several paint colors and styles.

I had been dying to try this Navy color, so I started small with the little console table that had.

This little guy has been around for years, much like the chair. The table turned out amazing!! Check that out on “Mama’s old console table makeover”

The chair sadly had already suffered a few mishaps and though in good shape, had some marks on it and had been living in the garage for a while.

There was a little too much paint on my plate when I “threw” the coat of paint on the console table….I looked at the chair and thought…why not?!

Using the same foam roller I used on the table, I covered as much as I could with the paint I had.

The next day I went back for coat 2 on the table and to continue with the chair!

Here is the chair after the 1st full coat of the All-in-one paint!

Again, I only used the little mini foam roller!

Back of the chair after 1st coat of paint.

Here is the table and chair in process! Use paint cans to elevate your chair to paint the feet!

My next issue is...how to paint the nail head trim...gold!

The Nailhead Trim...What to do with you?

After attempting to “freehand” paint the trim on a back section…it didn’t go the way I liked so I painted over it.

Next I tried to make a template to cover each nailhead circle and I figured I could just brush over gilding wax that way…again…was not happy with the result.

After all that, I now purchased a tool to “remove” the nailheads. I’m thinking I can lift them up a bit, gild them, then hammer them back in.

Removing the nailhead trim to paint is not something I'm looking forward to. I may keep looking for an alternative (ugh that seems like a lot of work...lol)!

For now I am going to add one more coat of paint (the 2 coats look good) but it still has a little bit of a “sticky” feeling, so I think it needs one more thicker coat.

If you have any ideas on how to paint those nailheads, feel free to share! I’m looking for an easier solution, and I want to use my gold gilding wax!

Here is my Tool List:

For now I am loving how this Navy color on the chair matches my office wall (I painted that 2 years ago)!

I hope you enjoyed seeing the chair makeover! I know we are not totally done with it, but I think I’ve proven you can definitely paint that old chair!

I’ll update you on the 3rd coat of paint and the progress on gilding the nailhead trim! Stay tuned and look around for some more DIY project ideas. I have tons more to share, just not enough hours in the day! 🙂

Teaser coming soon: Italian Buffet Server and Mirror set - DIY Project makeover in Navy, White, and Gold!

My next DIY post will show you the trials of painting a buffet server and mirror set. It was an oak finish and I experimented on this piece with a few different styles of “All-in-One” paint – and from this I learned one I will tell you to NEVER use!

This set came from a lovely woman (you know who you are) who had to get rid of some furniture pieces, my mom found them for sale online, and before you knew it, my garage was full of vintage pieces just waiting to be experimented on!