Chuck and His Chair Make-Over

Chuck, chilling on the shelf while he waits for his chair.

Long before Beanie Babies took the world by storm, my mother happened upon Boneless Chuck while out shopping. She fell in love with him and bought one for each of us kids. When Thing 1 moved out, one of my sisters found a website where she could buy Chuck and ordered one for her as a house-warming gift. (Yes, he has his own website ... to view it, click here.) I gave her a miniature wicker settee, ottoman, and chair for Chuck. (As you have so astutely observed, we take Chuck very seriously in my family!) Over the years, Chuck has lived in various places throughout my home, but his longest run was in the downstairs bathroom.

The kids and I went to Myrtle Beach one summer, where I happened upon a miniature Adirondack chair lamp. I bought it because it was cute ... and because I thought it looked like the perfect size for Chuck ... and it was! Chuck happily sat in the chair for many years, decorating for each season, but Christmas was his favorite.

Chuck at Christmas

When I bought this house, I had many sleepless nights agonizing over where I was going to put Chuck. When I laid out the kitchen, I originally planned to have a buffet table behind the island in the kitchen, but once we got the island and table in place, I realized the table impeded traffic behind the island. so I went with Plan B and put a corner shelf in the kitchen ... and my days of fretting over Chuck's new digs were over. Granted, I could have put Chuck on the buffet, but I had other plans for the buffet top. Besides, Chuck needed the perfect spot, and the buffet top was not quite perfect.

Next came the task of finding Chuck in one of the boxes someplace in the garage. The boxes were moved first, so they were buried behind all the furniture for the family room and my office. Fortunately I'm hyper-organized, and each box was labeled with the room and contents. It took some maneuvering, but I found the box he was hiding in. (Yea ... I can cross "Find Chuck" off my to-do list!)

Chuck in his "new" chair.

The chair was originally green, which would not work with my kitchen, so I painted it red ... and I think it looks fabulous! My kitchen walls are two shades of gray, and the cabinets are white with black hardware. To give the room some pizzazz, I scattered pops of red here and there. My old kitchen walls were red at the top with white beadboard below. Red worked well in that big, sun-filled kitchen. I toyed with painting the kitchen in this house the same color scheme, but decided to leave the walls as is and just accent the room with red.

Once the chair was dry, I brought it inside and sat Chuck in it. He's pretty laid back, so he wasn't complaining that his new home had no furniture, but he seemed quite pleased when he had his chair back ... and he was thrilled with the make-over. He said it brought out his eyes :)