It's Quite Distressing.

Yikes. Old, dirty, disheveled, worn out, drab, and pretty much uuuuugly. And I'm not talking about my sofa, either. (The slip cover is in the wash.)
I've been looking at this little chair for literally years as I worked in my friend's antiques shop, where it was like something to be hidden in a corner somewhere because it was so..... yeah. 

I don't know why it took me so long to figure it out.
I had a revelation yesterday afternoon, so I grabbed it on my way out the door (paying a really low price).

It kind of happened as an accident.... I started painting it in a mixture of the blue from this post and the aqua from this post because I wanted to use up leftover paint. (I think this color is like a "covington" blue.) But halfway through, I realized that the chalk paint was not covering the uneven bumpy finish on the chair. You know how some old finished get that nasty bumpy feel? Eeeeeewwww.  SO I stopped painting, let it dry, and then decided to remove the paint, sand the whole thing smooth, and start again. (So much for "no sanding needed" with chalk paint.... pfffft.) 

But alas. When I had sanded down all the bumpy paint, I had this ultra distressed look.... and I liked it! So I finished painting the whole thing and went at it with my electric sander all over for this ultra distressed, mega beat up look. And, I covered the seat with this piece of burlap-like material I found among my stashes. It's like burlap but finer fibers.... not jute. So no stinky.

Here is the chair as displayed in my new showroom space; next to my nifty wood crate shelf thing with some white accent pieces:
 

The place is coming together nicely, and we're planning on opening next weekend with regular hours for the summer.

Yay!