Chairs are a great first project for wild-and-wonderful painted furniture projects to brighten up a child’s bedroom or playroom, your porch or sunroom, your kitchen, or even a corner of your home office, wherever you feel the need for a smile.
Here’s a quick peek at my “idea board” for funky-whimsical hand-painted chairs:
Mexican Hand-Painted Child’s Chair
This first chair is little Mexican painted chair, sized for a child, from one of the many talented artisan families who live in the mountains of the state of Oaxaca.
(Please excuse the dog who’s hogging the shot — he didn’t feel like moving, and let’s just say he’s there to give a sense of scale. Big greyhound, small chair.)
Inspired by this little chair, a few years ago I replaced my old new kitchen countertop with cobalt blue solid surface, to match the stunning cobalt blue that’s the base color for this chair — it’s a decision I’ve never regretted for a minute.
Cobalt blue is a color that totally enlivens a room, even when used as no more than an accent color, and it challenges the viewer resist a big smile.
Yet, like other (more subdued) shades of blue, it goes with practically everything and has a general calming effect. With daffodil yellow and creamy white, a touch of cobalt does a nice version of French Country style, too.
Anne Leuck Feldhaus Painted Chair
This second chair, artist Anne Leuck Feldhaus‘s contribution to the annual Celebrity Charity Chair Auction, is really exciting to me — and not just because it’s inspired by her dog Alice!
I think this particular color scheme would be harder to fit into my own home than the Mexican blue chair, but the whole chair is an expression of pure joy.
And Joy is irresistable.
It can take a lot of courage to take the plunge with bright color, but a small side chair is an excellent starting point.
Why are chairs such a great item to start with, if you’re new to letting your inner Picasso hit the paint cans?
To begin with, they’re a small enough project to be doable in a couple of days, maybe even a couple of hours depending on the complexity of your vision. Chairs are the type of furniture you can move around easily, you can go as detailed or as simple in treatment as you want, and you can quickly paint over in another colour if you change decor or just get tired of your artwork. Chairs can be picked up very inexpensively at a yard sale, too — so you’re not risking a thing by taking some risks with colour and pattern!
Pick up an old wooden chair at a yard sale, give it a good cleaning, and go wild with whatever you’ve got in the way of acrylic craft paints or paint that’s left over from previous decorating projects.
Pink Poodle Chair
Want one more chair for inspiration?
The Pink Poodle chair is from Art by Monet, quite a different look with a bold checkerboard pattern on the seat and three stylized poodles prancing across the back rest!
Hey, we’ve got three hand-painted chairs here and three different dogs… I swear, that’s a total coincidence, but it does give me a great idea for a gift for one of the doglovers on my Christmas list!
Now where’d I put those paints…?