Furniture Makeover: The Princess Chair

So my daughter's 9th birthday was this last week.  For her birthday present I bought her 2 pieces of furniture to refinish.  I started with the chair.  This chair was a bad makeover project gone terribly WRONG.  I found her at a yard sale.  Obviously the owner knew it was THAT bad because I asked how much and she said , "Uh, 50 cents."  I RAN with that chair!  Under all of that faux black, white and pink fur and laquer paint job was a beautiful antique chair just CRYING out to be refinished---perfect as the seat for my little girl's vanity.  (The vanity is the OTHER birthday piece...details on that when I finish!) 

I decided that this piece needed some TRUE love--in a soft PINK if I might add.  First I reupholstered the seat in a quilted white fabric.  I picked up this fabric for $2 at my local Wal-Mart in the fabric section. 

Our Wal-Mart has not been remodeled yet so we are LUCKY enough to still have a fabric section.  Ya'll don't even want to know how far I am from another fabric store...it would give you nightmares.  Out of this darling fabric I managed to make a pillow cover, reupholster the seat and still have some leftover for something else.  WHAT A DEAL!

Then I sanded my little heart out-- the rough patches and the dings-- and then painted the chair in a soft pale pink homemade chalk paint.  I simply cannot afford Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I have heard it is fabulous and most wonderous.  But remember?  I only have PENNIES---not $36 for a quart.  Instead I bought a gallon of contractor's paint for $10, had it tinted pink and use it for a number of girly projects.  This is my 3rd project so far from that gallon of paint and there is still more than a half of the gallon bucket left!  The black paint underneath was the perfect base for distressing.  I just LOVE how it turned out.  But the best part?  The birthday girl does too!

So this project redo had a grand total of..... $5!!  This includes even the 1/4 yard of pink fabric I bought for the roses on the pillows!  And I have some of that left too!

This is my trash to treasure story for the week...what is yours?