This is a story of two sisters, chair sisters that is and their transformation from ugly duckling to fashionistas. I stumbled upon the two chairs at a church rummage sale. I had just come from a cool barn sale where I couldn't afford to buy one thing and on my way home we saw this sign for a rummage sale. It was in the church's basement and the deal was you could fill a paper bag full for $2.00. Wow I had never been to one before and after being disappointed in not purchasing anything at the barn I thought this might make me feel better. As I was looking at the small stuff on the tables my dad came and told me there were some chairs in the other room. I went in and saw two sad looking side chairs sitting there.
They were matching but one of them was damaged pretty good. They were shield back chairs, very traditional but I didn't like the finish and the fabric, forget it, it was awful. I didn't care about any of that but the one chair's back was missing part of the shield and I didn't know how I could fix that. I thought maybe I would buy just one of the chairs but I felt bad about leaving the one there and splitting up the "twins".
I asked my dad what he thought being he is an amazing problem solver, carpenter & woodworker. My dad said he could fix it "no problem" he would just have to make a new piece and put it into the back somehow, "no problem"! Easy for him to say, but it was just what I wanted to hear this way I didn't have to separate the girls.
I got the chairs home and got right to work on the non damaged one while my dad got to work on the "damaged" one. I immediately knew I wanted to paint them white. They needed a makeover from the dark deary stain they had been for years. My dad who is amazing worked his magic and rebuilt the shield back on the "damaged" one. She was good as new and ready for her transformation.
After seeing them in white and how great they looked I thought they deserved something special on their seats. I had found an awesome fabric at a thrift store a while back that I knew would be perfect. The fabric was actually a table cloth from the 70's that I fell in love with. I loved the colors and graphic and thought it was so funky. It was perfect for the girls.
Seeing them after their transformation I decided to name them "Twiggy" and "Pippa" as a nod to the 70's fabric they were wearing. So now the girls are happy again with their new found funk and being as they are twins you can once again not tell them apart thanks to my dad.
Right now you can visit the girls at this really cool shop in Princeton New Jersey called "jane".
If you are in the area you should check them out and a lot of other cool stuff. Here's a link to jane http://www.janeconsignment.com/site/.
