French Chair with Milk Paint and Grain Sack Upholstery

Furniture Reveal: A Chair That Speaks French

My favorite style of dining room chairs are the curvy french ladder back chairs.  I love them.  And someday, I hope to have ten of them around the dining room table (we tend have company over frequently, so we leave the table huge with 8-10 chairs around). But for now, I have one lone chair.

I found this chair at a local thrift store.  It was light color solid oak, but the finish was wearing, there was gouges in places, and  the seat cover was in horrid condition.

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I forgot to take a proper “before” photo, but here it is with the seat cushion removed and sanded down a bit.

I have to say, this is the chair that completely sold me on milk paint!  I had done a few projects with it up until this point, but the layering effect that it achieved to look old and authentic completely won me over.

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I layered it with several colors of milk paint, first a Stormy Grey, then a French Grey, and then a custom color of 2 parts Pearl and 1 part Cream to achieve a cream.  To seal it I used a mocha burnishing glaze.

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It naturally chipped in a few places, achieving that authenic look.  And I hand sanded with really fine sand paper to reveal some of the layers.  I love how silky smooth milk paint is after it has had a fine sanding!

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The seat cushion was my first attempt at reaching a cost effective grain sack look.  I was pleased with how that turned out as well. (See my post on Achieving the Grain Sack Look for a tutorial on how to do that.)

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Originally, I was going to donate this to a silent auction, but I fell in love with it, and another chair went instead.

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And now it sits at my secretary desk, where I do all my computer work.  It’s my favorite corner of the living room at present.

Thanks for stopping by!

Disclaimer – I have never been to France, nor do I speak French, but by the photos I’ve seen on Pinterest, I’ve dubbed this chair “French”.  Someday, I do hope to go there.

Linking with:

Miss Mustard Seed

French Country Cottage

From My Front Porch to Yours

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