ombre chair diy

 

Because I don't seem to have enough projects in my life right now, I decided to give my computer chair a make over. I've been slowly shying away from my shabby chic style towards a more modern and simplified aesthetic. I don't have the dough right now to get a new chair, so I tried to transform my thrift store find that I've had for years. 

The hardest part of this DIY was painting the caning. As you can see, it was a pretty messy process. I would recommend to anyone else painting cane to use spray paint. I brushed on the acrylic paint and then used a dry brush to spread it and get out the gobs between the caning. This picture was taken mid process. I had to do at least 5 coats on the caning and about 3 on the rest of the chair.

Sorry this picture is so dark, I completed this project while watching Downton Abbey on Netflix. I just want to show how I did the ombre effect on the legs. I first made the navy color that appears on the bottom and painted it. I then took out about half the paint (I mixed my paints in a mason jar) and added about equal parts white acrylic. This gave me the shade above it. I repeated this process 3 times total for 4 different colors, the top most being the closest to white. I saved about a tablespoon of each color on a palette as reference. To blend the 4 different shades, I used the pallete sample paint. I used the darker shade, added a bit of white, and on a pretty dry brush, blended between the two.

 

Here you can see the legs are blended and the caning needs another coat of white... or two... or eight. It was super annoying.

I wanted to bring a bit of blue up to the top of the chair, so I repeated the pin stripes around the crevasses in the molding that appeared on the original paint job with navy. 

The pin stripes are a bit messy but I am happy with the outcome. Now, go ombre all the things!