Wicker Wuv - Before & After

Is it just me that loves wicker? Or shall I say "wuvs" it;) I'm cheesy, it's ok.  As much as I love wicker, most of the time my wicker finds are always in need of a huge makeover.  A few weeks ago the hubs and I went to good ole east Texas to get in some quality family time. Most of our east Texas trips end up with some great finds from our standard antique shopping trips. This fabulous find was just one of many. I spotted it pretty quickly and knew I had to have it. Despite the horrendous paint color, the shape of the piece was too pretty to pass up. And when I say the color was terrible, I mean it! Imagine the color of a band-aid mixed with the color of throw up or something. Sorry for the visual, but yeah - it was bad!! I thought for sure since the color was so awful that they would be willing to negotiate the price down a lot. Well I was kinda wrong, but a little right. It was listed at $80 which I thought was just completely ridiculous. I mean, who do these people think they are?? $80?? YEAH RIGHT.  I did really want it though so I believe I offered like $50 or something. They didn't really like that too much but we eventually met in the middle at $65. I normally would never pay that much for something like this, but the chair was actually in really good condition and I already had a place picked out for it in our home. Darn. I bought it. BUT the good news is after my little makeover, I loved it even more than I thought I would! Here are a few pics of the before:

Sorry about the pics -  I realized I forgot to take a before picture and I had already painted the entire front.  Oops!

 

Here is a close up. The pictures don't even do it justice. It was worse in person - believe me!!

 

I typically paint wicker with spray paint because it's super easy to get into all the cracks and crevasses, but I couldn't find a pretty enough red at any local store. I did although have a nearly full can of red paint from my porch makeover just waiting to be used again;) I knew this would take longer than spray paint, but I was willing to give it a go. I found a super old paint brush and got to work. Since I don't like any sort of shiny paint, I believe this was more of a matte color. It might have been eggshell, but definitely NO SHINE at all.  The uber ugly base color actually worked in my favor because it acted as a primer. Lucky me:) The process ended up taking maybe around 2 hours or so, but that was from start to finish. Not too bad if you ask me. Here is the before and after of the living room bookshelf corner:

{{ Before }}

 

{{ After }}

 

Much more spacious and open! As much as I loved my old olive velvet chair, it just didn't fit in the space correctly. It bothered me because everything always looked cluttered in that corner. I couldn't even walk behind the chair without having to move furniture. Way too frustrating. 

 

See the difference?? I can walk behind the chair - amazingggg! You might have noticed the vintage 1920's craftsman style leaning bookshelf as a new addition as well. There will soon be a post on that too:)

Well I hope y'all enjoyed my latest before and after makeover! Make sure to check out my feature at The DIY Showoff today as well. Roeshel was SO kind to feature my new little baby blog today and I couldn't be more thankful. I've been following her for a while now and she's always got GREAT posts!!

Also make sure to stop on over to Remodelaholic to visit their linky party!