Fleur de Chair

I am a fleur de lis fan.  Out on one of my thrifty hunts, I came across this chair with the fleur de lis on it.  It didnt have a price on it, I just knew 25 bucks probably and would have to pass it up.  I got brave and asked what he wanted for it and to my surprise, 5 buckaroonies!!  Needless to say MINE. 

My pics are horrible, I have tried flash/no flash, but it has been dreary weather which doesnt help.

It wasnt in bad shape, just scuffed up.  I was ambitious when I took this project on and decided to strip it.  What was I thinking, forgot how much work that is. 

I didnt actually strip the whole chair, I took my hand sander and took off as much of the finish as I could.  Then I used liquid stripper for the details, what a pain in my hiney.  Was glad I didnt buy a whole set after 1 chair!!

After I stained it with gel stain and a cotton cloth, I took a new clean cotton cloth and bunched it up and started pouncing on a little more gel stain.  Wanted a fairly distressed look.  See below detail pic.

I told you mom is the floral designer in the family, notice my vase next to the chair.  I had it for about a year and tried different dried things in it and finally gave up and had her fix me up.  Didnt it turn out fab.  Makes me think about the happy dance again.  Wish I would have taken before pics of how lame it really was. 

I have a thing for furniture.  It is a good thing I dont have a humungous house, it would be fulllll.  Later gators!