A Name for a Chair

A Name for a Chair

I mentioned I was redoing an old family high chair in the post about Laelia’s birthday inspiration board, and here is a peek! I took a long time to do this; at first I was going to strip off the old & peeling varnish, and then sand it all smooth and stain it some color, and then re-seal it–but then I couldn’t decide on a color to stain it (espresso like my dining room table and my bedroom furniture? Is that too dark for babies? Is that too much of that stain color all over my house? But that cherry walnut is just so 90s… etc,etc), and I also recognized how that whole process was just going to take to long and too much effort for the time being… So I decided to spray paint, instead of stain it, which did cut down on my prep time because I just had to give it a good sanding and then prime it, and then paint it and seal it. I was having trouble deciding a color for a while, but then I decided on white. Usually, I opt for a “color”, but I feel that making it white was the right choice, especially because I have been planning on painting our name in the space on the top of the chair since I first laid eyes on it.

This is the highchair all primed up before I spray painted it.

Doesn’t that space just scream “put something here”. Considering this chair came down from the Marés side and hopefully it will last more than one child, I hear it screaming “Marés”. Now, if I were my mother-in-law I’m sure I would do something by hand and not even think about sketching something out first, as she used to teach tole painting and work at a sign shop, but my husband and I don’t have as much practice with lettering, so we have to see about a million options first, and into the computer it goes. I traced the shape in illustrator, turned off the photo path and printed out the shape on a few sheets of paper for my husband and I to go to town filling in the shape.

Then, we decided on the elements we liked from what we drew, and I scanned it in, and then went to town on it in illustrator.

And now we just have to decide how to transfer it to the high chair (so I guess we aren’t really “painting” it, after all). There are a few methods to transfer a print to wood, and we haven’t exactly decided on what we will do yet. We can do a heat transfer, or we can just do something simple with mod podge and glue. We’ll see. Check back in soon to see the finished product!

3 Responses to A Name for a Chair

  1. Sara says:

    Hi Jesyka,

    You can upload the design you created like a photo to Uppercase Living in My Design Suite. You can choose the size and they will create an expression (sticker) for you.

    Not sure if that sounds like what you would want but there ya go!

    Take care!

  2. […] so this reveal has been a long time coming! As you may remember from the post about the name design, we got this high chair in OCTOBER from my MIL and it was used by at least Laelia’s aunt and […]

  3. […] Birthday Fete – location, location location! – (2/21/11) First Birthday Inspiration Board – (2/28/11) A Name for a Chair – (3/38/11) Pinwheels and Balloons – (4/06/11) High Chair Reveal – (4/21/11) Pinwheel and Balloon […]

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Welcome

Welcome to Visual Vocabularie! My name is Jesyka, and I am a designer, artist, mom to Laelia and Luca, wife to software engineer and UX designer Tyler, coffee lover, and all around enthused person. This is my blog; here I share my personal projects, whether it's a furniture makeover, a new painting, a birthday party, an invitation I designed, or a favorite outfit for my little. You’ll also catch a glimpse into our family life in Los Angeles.

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