Early last week when I was looking for ideas for today’s video I noticed a bunch of succulent chairs on my Facebook feed. I hadn’t noticed them before and they caught my eye because they were so pretty. So I decided to do some image searches which lead to some DIY videos on how to make these in real life and that is how we got to today’s project.
In my stash of stuff to work with was this sad little chair. I got it a couple of years ago at Dollar Tree. I had been in a hurry and grabbed several packages of their dollhouse furniture to use for tutorials. I noticed when I grabbed it that this chair was a bit off. It wasn’t until I got home and really looked at it that I realized just how off that was. I did have a plan for it but I never found anything to make that work so this chair has sat in a box in my craft storage for all this time just waiting.
So today we are going to dig out a messed up chair from our mini stash and create a centerpiece for the doll’s garden. I have seen photos of these chairs in gardens, on porches, in flower beds, on porches and even inside of homes and businesses. So this can go almost anywhere.
To start I just gave the chair a basecoat of a white craft paint. This way I had something to sand back to later and I knew it would allow me to just do one coat of the colored paint in the next step. Don’t be overly careful with this coat for the most part it won’t show, if you miss spots don’t worry about it.
Next add a coat of whatever color paint you want your chair to be. I picked this bright blue color. Again this coat of paint doesn’t have to be really well done. If you miss spots don’t worry about it. We are going to be sanding back in areas in the next step. One place I did make sure was covered was the detail on the legs. That way I can sand back the higher areas and there will still be paint in the more recessed parts of the leg design.
Once your paint is dried use a piece of sandpaper to really add some age to the chair. Take off as much or as little paint as looks right to you. Be sure to hit those areas that get the most wear- edges of the seat, the legs, the back, anywhere on the chair that people would have rubbed on the chair in normal use.
Now for one of my favorite parts of aging anything, adding the grime. For this I used a thicker medium to darkish brown paint, I just a cotton swab to both apply it and to rub off excess. (I also used a paper to towel to remove and blend some) The idea is to add this paint in any areas that would get dirty in real life. Again think about where people would touch the chair. The spots that would get stuff spilled or be in contact with dirt. The area where the seat meets the back and the bottoms of the legs are good areas to do this step on as well as the seat. Allow this paint to dry.
Next I added a thin coat of Mat Mod Podge just to set all the work I’ve done up to this point. I really like how the aging looks and I don’t want to loose what I’ve done. This is optional though and you could skip this step if you wish.
Next I wanted to add what looked like the potting soil that comes through the seat. On some of the real chairs I saw they had removed the center of the seat, lined the area with chicken wire, added one of those liner things and filled that with potting soil. This step is to add that part beneath the seat.
Now to replicate the chicken wire texture. I had one of those little stretchy bags that you get fresh garlic in at the grocery store. It is the perfect texture to make this look like it is covered in the chicken wire. The biggest problem was getting it glued in place. I started with tacky glue but while it held a little it wasn’t strong enough. So I ended up using super glue. Lots of super glue. And you guys know how much I hate super glue. But it worked and that was the important part.
Once the glue is dry paint this part with some brown paint. I used the same paint I had used earlier. Allow to dry.
Once the paint dries glue the “soil” to the bottom of the chair. I used my Shoe Goop because my almost new tube of e6000 is still missing in my craft storage room. I remember thinking that I was putting it in a place that “made sense” I still have no idea where that place was….. Anyway use any glue that will hold the soil to the bottom of the chair.
Several of the chairs I have seen online have what appears to be a sheet of moss laying over the back of the chair. I thought that was really pretty and I am hoping it kind of distracts the eye from how thick that chair back is at the top. To make it I am using some cotton fabric (unbleached muslin) I measured and decided to make my moss sheet ¾” by 2” for my chair.
Using a pencil I marked this area on a piece of the fabric. Now brush some Mod Podge inside of the shape you just drew making sure to stay inside the lines but fill it in really well. Now I used some dry herbs and sprinkled them over the Mod Podge. These are just expired dry herbs from the kitchen. Whenever I am changing out a container of dry herbs I dump what I have left in the old container into this zip-lock bag and keep them to use in crafting. Pat the herbs down into the Mod Podge and allow to dry.
Once dry use a variety of green paints to stipple paint the surface of the herbs. This will not only color this to make it look like it is not old dry herbs but it will also help to seal the leaves down. Allow to dry.
I like to now seal the moss mat with a coat of Mat Mod Podge. This will seal everything down and help to discourage any tiny critters from snacking on our project. Allow to dry most of the way.
Now cut the moss mat along the lines you drew and glue it in place on the back of the chair.
This seems like a good place to stop for this week. The video is already pretty long at this point and we are in the midst of a heatwave so I need to stop for the day.
Next week the plan is to create some plants and maybe other decor to put into/onto the chair. Hopefully we will get the chair finished next Sunday.
As always I do want to sincerely thank all of you for watching my videos and reading my blog posts. It means so much to me that you are supporting me in this way. If I could ask you all to do just a bit more by subscribing to the channel and liking the videos and leaving comments. Those help more than you can imagine. Also if you could pass the links on to your friends I would appreciate it so much.
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