DIY Gone Bad

This post is for all of you DIYers who have had the experience of BETTER BEFORE.

BEFORE you messed with something and made it 10 times uglier than it started out.

You are not alone my friends!  We have all been there.


No, we didn't have a fire.  This isn't smoke damage.  I just thought I had a great idea and oooooooh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, was I wrong.

You see, we have had these two chairs that we bought from Pottery Barn when Hannah was a baby, so they are at least 11-12 years old.  They have lived in 3 of our family rooms over the years.  Like the rest of the furniture, I've moved them around a bunch of times, trying to find the best fit for them in this house.  They started out in the family room, then they made their way to the spot that the kitchen table used to reside before it's makeover.  I loved this sunny little seating area!

But sadly, they were just TOO BIG for the space.  *sigh*

Eventually, because I am trying to use what I have, the rattan chairs ended up in the living room.  I showed you this half of the living room last month when I was trying to decide whether to keep the traditional rug or not.

What I failed to mention is the brown party that is happening on the other side of the room.  

I really like a bit of wood tone to warm up a neutral space, but the combination of the rattan chairs and the armoire so close together felt like a bit of overkill to me.   Also, depending on the light, sometimes the armoire and the chairs take on an unfortunate reddish hue.  And the chairs and the rug together?  Just not digging it.

BUT again, I'm trying to work with what I have!!!!  Are you in the same boat?  I have perfectly good pieces that I like individually - I just need to make them work together.

I considered painting the armoire (that houses a computer and printer that the kids use for schoolwork - you can read more about it here), but then I would lose that inlaid wood detail that I like.

I rearranged the room:

but still the chairs and the armoire are having that big old BROWN fiesta over here:

The chairs are definitely starting to show some wear and tear - they creak when sat upon, the cushions  need to be replaced, and the finish is pretty beat up.  They will eventually head to where all our furniture goes in their golden years….the basement.

In the meantime….and finally….getting to the point of this post…..I thought I would try to make the chairs look a little less ratty, and a little less matchy-matchy with the armoire….and maybe play a little nicer with the rug….so I experimented with the color a bit.

I love the Kooboo chairs, made famous in large part thanks to Joni at Cote de Texas:


Hmmmmm….perhaps give my chairs a more gray-brown look?

First I tried Polyshades in Ebony, and I don't have a photo of it, but no, no, no.  Too black, and I already have my black bamboo chair from my in-laws coming in this room, plus the coffee & side tables.

Next up:  Polyshades in Bombay Mahogany, which took the teetering-on-reddish hue of the chair right into full blown REDDISH:

Oh no no no no.  Reddish brown hair?  Beautiful.  Love it.  Hugely partial to redheads.   Reddish brown furniture?  Nope, no thank you.

I tried mixing the ebony and mahogany Polyshades together, but no go.  (I have done this with other pieces of furniture with luck, but on top of the color of the rattan, let's just say it was not pretty.)

I tried a little white-washing, with various degrees of white and grey.

Blech.  Awful, don't you agree?

Then I tried black spray paint, sprayed on and wiped off, and for about 5 minutes I thought I was onto something so I kept going.  And going.  And going.  And basically fast forwarding the rattan chairs' departure to the basement.

This, my friends, is what I like to call DIY GONE VERY BAD.

It might not look THAT bad to you, but trust me, I should have left the rattan chairs in their beat-up state alone.

Mark, who usually takes days, weeks and months to notice a change around the house, came home from work Monday night, walked into the living room and said, "Um honey…..WHAT happened to the chair in the living room????"

Oh well, sometimes you don't know until you try, right?

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So who's up for furniture shopping this weekend????