The french chair transformation is under way, and you won't believe what we found inside!

This past weekend I visited a local thrift store and was delighted to find an old french-style chair. I've been dreaming of scoring a lovely french chair - I see so many of them on other blogs, and have hoped for my own. I love the curvy legs and arms. As soon as I spied this, I ran to it, nearly taking down a granny and small children. Okay, that's an exaggeration. But, you get it. I had to have it.

I know she's not so pretty right now - but, oh baby - you wait and see! She's gonna be gorgeous!

Like the bench project from hell, this will be a series of blog posts as well, documenting the steps taken to revamp this piece. If you missed the bench series, here's the links - feel free to laugh along. Yup, the bench was a pisser!

Bench - Part 1 (hell begins)
Bench - Part 2 (the hell continues)
Bench - Part 3 (yup, still hell)
Bench - Part 4 (sometimes you gotta go through hell to appreciate heaven_

Back to the chair - tonight hubby and I started tearing off the old fabric. Surprisingly, taking the fabric off this chair was a whole lot easier than the bench. And with way fewer staples. Even the chore of removing old fabric can be fun and exciting. It's like excavating an ancient dig site looking for fossils and dinosaur bones. Well, I agree that might be a stretch - but it's cool to uncover old layers of fabric - and to wonder when the piece was made, who owned it before me, and in this case, what the maker stuffed inside the cushion!

We joked as we were removing the last piece of fabric from the cushion, saying, "wouldn't it be awesome if we found a load of cash inside the cushion?" Wouldn't it!! Instead, we found these curious 'hairs.' You read that right - we found hairs. Poking up from inside the cushion.  Take a look...

Nasty, right?

Absentmindedly, I ran my hand across the seat, while my head tried to process this discovery. Hair? Is this really hair? The pieces are stiff, bristly, and mostly black. All I can think is that this chair is really old, and might have been stuffed with horse hair? Did they even do that back in the good ole's days? I have some Google research to do tonight! (When I get the answer, I'll be sure to let you know. If you already know the answer, please comment below.)

So, I thought you'd be interested in seeing the chair as she looks now. We're keeping the hemp-looking fabric on the front. Don't worry, I will cover it. But, something inside me said leave it there. And I'm not messing with the hemp stuff on the bottom of the seat that seems to be keeping the springs in place.

And while removing the fabric on the back of the chair, we found this toile - which I must admit - I love. Look at the pretty little pictures in the fabric! I'm not taking this off either, but since it's so rusted over from the nails and staples, I will have to cover it.

A cow!

A little boy blowing a horn?

Horse, or donkey? Guess the same can be asked about the mysterious hairs creeping through the cushion!

Next step - fabric shopping. I've got a color palette in mind - but I don't want to tell you just yet. It will be a surprise. Kind of like the hairs. Except not gross. Promise!