the life of a chair

I'm in love with this chair.

I'd been searching Craigslist for the perfect chair to paint and reupholster for Madeline's new desk.  I had wanted one for $5 or less.  Apparently those are hard to come by.  

So I went to The Land of Free Goods.  AKA, my parent's house.

I called and asked my mom if she had a chair that I could paint for Madeline's room.  I went over a few days later and my dad had lined up seven chairs across the garage for me to scout out.  I kid you not.  They had seven chairs tucked away in crawl spaces in their basement.  And those were only the ones that they showed me.  How many more are hidden away?  Heaven only knows.

One thing I appreciate about my mom: she tells it straight.  You can have this, but you can't paint it.  Or you can have this, and do whatever you want with it. Or you can have this, but if you get rid of it give it back to me.  So, there were four chairs I could paint and three I could not paint.  

Anyway, I digress.  I walked away with three of those chairs.  I'm still trying to talk my lovely husband into keeping the other two.  I'll let you know how it goes.

The one that I ended up painting for Madeline's room is awesome.  It didn't have upholstery, but it does have character.  AWESOME.  I couldn't pass it up.  I knew I had to have it as soon as I saw it.

It's history is handwritten on the bottom by my grandmother.  My grandmother named Madeline.  

According to the chair, it came to my grandparents' farmhouse in 1952 when it was already 85-90 years old.  It moved with them to the city after their farm sale in 1977, and now three generations later another Madeline is using it in 2014 to play school and do her homework.

Makes my heart smile.