Do you remember the little chair my cousin’s wife gave me a few weeks ago? Well, it’s all sanded and ready for its makeover. I decided to keep the original blue paint on the inside of the front leg. There are also bits of the original paint here and there.
I picked up a quart of PARA Paint Time Will Sell, which is almost identical to the original colour. I had planned to paint the bottoms of the legs to give it a dipped look, but decided not to because the legs are a bit askew. In fact, the whole chair is askew. And I’m pretty sure it’s all hand made. See what I mean? {Ignore my foot!}
A Facebook friend came across this chair on the antiques web site, Green Spot Antiques. It sold for $195 and was listed as an antique Quebec habitant chair in old green with gut wound seat from the 1860s.
Looks a lot like my chair, doesn’t it?! Which would explain why I couldn’t figure out how the original seat had been attached – it was probably a gutted seat. Which I have no idea how to replicate. I also found a set of five 19th century Quebec chairs and a Quebec woven catgut seat chair that are also very similar to my chair:
I painted a coat of Time Will Sell on the inside of the other front leg, the inside of the back legs, and the top of the back before I discovered this chair might be an antique.
Now I’m debating if I should keep the new paint, or sand it off and just leave the chair as it came, with the original paint on the one leg. On the one hand, the chair had already been sanded before I got it and most of the original paint is gone, so I can’t preserve the chair in its original condition anyway. On the other hand, I do want to honour this little chair’s history, and if it’s really an antique, maybe I shouldn’t try to update it.
Soooooo….. what would you do? Remove the new paint and keep the chair as close to original as possible? Or keep the new paint and go ahead with the makeover as planned?
