When looking at varieties of gliders, I thought I had it nailed down to comfort and design. I set aside a pretty huge chunk of my budget for the nursery to get something nice, classic, and modern. Here were my ideas.

serena & lily – presidio glider

west elm – graham glider

monte – vola wingback glider

dwell – myles glider

That was until I was driving to the grocery store and saw a garage sale! I just had to stop. They had a lot of vintage pieces displayed, including tables and chairs. But it wasn’t until I parked and walked up to the garage sale, that I saw this gem! It had some of the components I wanted; rocking ability, high back for my sleepy head, but also a unique mid-century look. For $15.00, I got this rocking chair… and an ottoman! Double Score! I brought it home and cleaned up the mountain of dust on it, and it looked better already!

It looks pretty nice “as-is” but I had other ideas for this rocker. I wanted more padding in the seat and backrest, as well as have the wood sanded and lightened a bit.

That night, I googled my rocker and found a couple great ideas googling Bentwood Rocking Chairs, that caught my eye.

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And then I found this picture, which completely made my day… one of my favorite arts (That’s Picasso folks!) in a Bentwood rocker! Awesome! It was a sign from the gods, it was meant to be! Ha!

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Luckily for me (well sort of), I’ve been holding on to one of my patient’s business cards; he has been refinishing wood and upholstering furniture from his home. I called him and had him assess the chair. He was on board with my ideas of keeping the wood finish (no crazy paint, here) and adding a better seat/backrest. I was super excited (and nervous) to see his handy work! For $120.00, and $35.00 for the fabric, I think I did rather well! Here’s the final look!

It turned out wonderfully. Well, sort of… besides trying to get the guy off the idea that a one week turn-around meant two months, with no returned phone calls, and a lot of chaos in-between, AND still an imperfect chair … The back he upholstered is already coming off. (tears and frustration.) Plus, I talked to a lot of moms that said having a glider and using minimal energy to rock, is the best thing at 2am, hands down! So, my garage sale find is now in my living room, and we ultimately invested in the West Elm Graham Glider and ottoman because the others would take 8-12 weeks to deliver and I don’t think we have that much time! You win some, you lose some!