Before and After: Faux bamboo arm chair

This is one of my favorite before & afters I've ever done. Yet I realized this weekend that I've never actually documented it (even though it's almost a year old!)

I have a problem with faux bamboo. I love it's beachy vibe and that it somehow still maintains really modern lines. My first purchase years ago was this arm chair. It was a little sad looking with that dusty cushion but the cane seat was in great condition and overall the chair was sturdy. So he came home with me.

I always dreamed of him in a bright, high gloss, lacquer-like paint with an equally spunky cushion. This image from Lonny Mag's Michelle Adam's NYC apartment was my inspiration. But he sat in this previous sad state for years (yes years...analysis paralysis).

{M.A. Belle}

When it came time to re-do our previously really sad home office, I knew I wanted the chair to play a role. Probably not as a desk chair (though I considered it) but I wanted it in there somewhere as secondary seating. A color scheme was settled upon and off to the paint store I went.

First coat (and yes, I primed it in a tinted, oil based primer first) was Benjamin Moore's Tangerine Melt. I should note now that it was also a complete PAIN IN THE A*S to paint. This was my first time working with oil paint. I new it would dry to the hard, shell-like lacquer look I wanted, but perhaps starting out on a project with 10 zillion nooks and crannies wasn't the best idea. I did my best but it was a painfully slow process to minimize drips with oil paint (but slow drying = no brush marks which is awesome). Literally I would paint one side of the bamboo, turn the chair around and see it all dripping down the other side. This went on for 3 coats. After primer + 1 coat it was looking like this.

It was ok, but a little too wimpy of an orange for my taste. But I pressed on, convincing myself that it was bright enough and that I was crazy for wanting a brighter orange (I mean it's already orange right?) A week or so of painting later, it wasn't right and I was back to the drawing board for a more "in your face" orange. Enter Benjamin Moore Flame.

Excuse the really crappy iPhone photo but this was winter time and I got sick of painting in my cold garage. So into the kitchen he moved. You can see the color difference pretty well here though. Flame on the left, Tangerine Melt on the right. See! I wasn't crazy afterall. Flame was definitely the high octane orange I was after. A few more (painful) coats later and he was ready for a cushion in a platinum zebra print pattern.

And voila! There he sits in our home office. All spunky and full of himself. I <3 him.