In addition to the foot stool, my MIL left behind her dad’s leather chair when we bought the house. It was outfitted with wagon wheel arm rests and an embossed horse, very similar to the one on the right below from ancientpoint.com. (Check out this old cash register!)
The chair was in terrible shape but it had a lot of sentimental value for my MIL. So it stayed in storage in our basement for several months. Then I saw it catagorized as bohemian eclectic vintage furniture on lonny.com and thought of a great way to preserve her memory and get it out storage; a pillow!
Nolan helped cut the leather embossed part of the chair and I disassembled it for easy disposal. I found several little gems, including an old matchbook (with one match left), an earring, and an old ticket stub from the Minnesota State Fair, back when tickets were only 75¢. I gave my MIL the little gems but didn’t tell her about the pillow.
I used a brown velvet zipper pillow case from an old pillow for the back. The only reason the pillow wasn’t in my rotation was because the original form was made of white feathers and they would constantly be poking you and sticking out of the pillow. Not cute, so I ditched the form but kept the case. I used stuffing from an old red pillow.
Looking back I would have taken more time on the edges and maybe added some trim, but when I surprised my MIL with it, it generated some tears, so I consider it a success. I wasn’t even planning to write about it but then the same picture from lonny.com popped up in this inspiration board.
