Schnitzel & Boo: WIP: Chaise Lounge Re-Do

My friend Katy is the editor of a brand new quilting magazine called "Quilt Now" and, as you can imagine, having such an awesome job comes with some pretty sweet perks. For example, one of my most favorite companies in the fabric industry, Renaissance Ribbons, contacted her and said (in my imagination, at least) "Hey Katy, we want to send you some ribbon because you're way flipping cool and we think you'd like it!" To which she replied, "Ok, but you should contact my friend Kristi because she loves ribbon and she could do something really fab with it!" And you know what? They did.

One day I opened up my email and there was one from Renaissance Ribbons explaining the above conversation and a request that I could use some of their ribbons on a project. "Katy mentioned you had an idea for a chair..." After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I wrote back accepting their offer and warning them that the chair would indeed be fabulous, but it would also come with a price tag. It was going to need A LOT of ribbon. Their response? "We do love fabulous, what do you need?"

What do I need...indeed! What do I need? Well, for starters, I need a chair. A chaise lounge chair, to be exact, and preferably Victorian. How hard can that be to find? After about 2 months of searching high and low and visiting every antique shop between here and my mother's house I finally found one. Granted, it was just the frame and it was in really rough shape, but I found it.

Mr. Cool, Roo and I headed out to pick it up. I knew I had to have it. This chaise was perfect and it was going to be mine!

When we got to the store, the owner was surprised that we had driven all that way just for that item. It had been sitting in her shop for months, she didn't think she'd ever sell it! But, she said, she thought it would eventually, that it was just waiting for the right person.

(Loaded and cramped and trying not to think of spiders!)

The chaise had been pulled from the depths of an old ramshackle barn. It had dry rot in some places, tons of extra nails, a few layers of paint where there should never have been paint...but in my mind's eye, I could picture it refinished and it was gorgeous.

Today, I finally had a good chunk of time to coordinate with my friend Drew's schedule. (Drew is a master woodworker and one of my best friends.) I loaded the chaise back up onto the MINI and headed his way.

He told me I had to wear jeans and real shoes, so I did. It's Georgia in July. It's 94° and muggy because it rained yesterday. Wouldn't you know it? He stuck me right out in the sunshine to work:

(Hotter than a pig on a spit!)

I didn't really mind, though. I was finally working on this project that had been a dream for so long. Yay!

Drew glued some pieces back together, showed me how to use the, ahem, "Ball Sander" and then pretty much walked away. I spent the next four hours sanding with the drill/ball sander and by hand, and using the air pressure thingy to blow the dust and cobwebs away and then finally using a clear satin coat to seal it.

Before: