Handpainted Betsy Ross Flag Chair

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Yesterday, I told you about my awesome yard sale score of four (likely antique, but definitely vintage) Lexington Furniture wooden chairs for less than $5 each.

The first got a “refreshing” coat of paint, my tribute to Coca-Cola. In case you’ve forgotten, here’s my Coca-Cola chair:

As much as I despise painting chairs — all those spindles make for hundreds of “missed-a-spot” moments — I couldn’t leave these babies brown for long.

For Chair #2, I took inspiration from a pair of patriotic swags I bought for $2 total — take that Plow & Hearth! — at a yard sale. Can’t wait to hang these babies on my front porch for the 4th, but I digress.

The flag swags and the recent Memorial Day weekend put me in a patriotic mood, so I set out to transform one of my chairs with a flag motif.

The before:

And the after:

The seat and back got a coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Aubusson Blue (one of my favorite colors!). The legs and spindles, I painted Emperor’s Silk, and the stretchers and center spindle I painted Old White.

I went back and forth over how to decorate the seat and asked my husband for his opinion, too. Initially, I thought of doing just a single star on the seat, but decided that would look too Lone Star State, and Texas wasn’t the statement I was trying to make. Eventually, I settled on Betsy Ross’s flag with a star for each of the 13 colonies — fitting since I live in North Carolina. Here’s a good look at the stars:

I made a stencil using my Silhouette Cameo and painted the circle of stars on in Old White. As with the Coca-Cola chair, I sanded this chair BEFORE waxing it because I wanted it to look old, weathered and somewhat distressed. I finished it all with a couple coats of clear wax and buffed it to a shine.

I couldn’t be happier with how this turned out. I think the chair looks quite nice on my front porch alongside my red-and-white petunias and that terrific bandana print tablecloth that I bought right out of the display window of a new favorite shop, Vintage Cottage in Asheboro, N.C. As much as I love the chair, though, I think I’ll be selling it this weekend at Craft at the Crossing Art Festival in Huntersville, N.C.

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