Ebonising and advertising

ok - been a busy week!

Jos comes from a marketing and advertising background and her sis-in-law sells media for a crust.  She is to blame for targeting you with stuff you don't need but feel you have to have when you see it during your favorite hour of TV.  The reason you feel that urge is that SIL is VERY good at what she does...

Anyway SIL is moving office, and they are going with the retro 60s-70s theme.  Ta-daaaaaaaaah!  Lounge Lizards to the rescue.

SIL breezed in on Friday 10 days ago, pointed at various bits cluttering up the house, made wild exclamations of delight as we draped fabrics over furniture, approved a budget, drank wine and left.

She chose a Frank Lowen / Morgan sofa with sled legs, a pair of Don low back chairs with the spear shape uprights on the rear legs and a pair of wire frame arm chairs.  Catch?  She wants them ebonised - thats the black finish that still allows the grain to show through.

Irony alert - check out what we had to do to go the other way (black to brown) on the black sheep suite...

Mild panic.  Spent that weekend trying various approaches that didn't look like cheap acrylic paint drooled onto timber, or a nasty accident with mascara.  Got it right after a while with the help of test panels donated by a dead-on-arrival wall unit.

Got the approval from SIL on the look and shade, then looked around for a piece to test it on.  Up jumped this orphan.  We got him recently and we are a little baffled as to what his pedigree is.  But for this purpose, it doesn't matter.

He is a sapele mahogany frame with a rock/recline mechanism that uses a NZ native timber subframe.

Cool - everything we needed, and three days later, the change of colour was complete.  What do you reckon?  He's up for sale now so check for him on Trade Me.