The Gnome and I – Adventures in First Time Home Ownership – Episode 11

The Gnome and I – Adventures in First Time Home Ownership
Episode 11 – The Throne

To read from the beginning click here: The Gnome and I

One day Henri looked critically at the parlour and remarked, “Tu es une reine. Où est votre trône?”  (“You are a Queen.  Where is your throne?”)

Strange how he always overlooks the fact that I am Queen when there was work to be done! But Henri had a point. I longed for a comfortable chair for reading.  I searched online but could not find the type of chair I wanted at an affordable price.  I remembered seeing a second-hand shop in town.  Maybe I could find something there.  The people in the shop stared at my beret; apparently I’m the only one in town to wear one.  They somehow missed seeing Henri’s red hat.  There was a nice-looking chair for sale but the fabric did not match the rest of my decor.  (I now worried about such things as matching decor!)  The price was right with free delivery so I decided to give upholstering a try.  What could go wrong?

Apparently quite a lot, I realised after viewing upholstery videos online.  I did not have the skill level or proper tools to take the entire chair apart.  There was nothing wrong with the stuffing so I elected to recover the chair instead.

After searching for hours online I finally found the perfect dark red velvet and matching fringe.  But I was so petrified of ruining the velvet that the chair remained untouched for a few months.  I painted the feet ebony black.  I finally got up the courage to make the pattern pieces out of parchment paper and cut the fabric.  Working very methodically, I hand-sewed and glued the velvet to the chair and then hand-sewed the fringe around the bottom edge. It took a week to recover the chair and at last I had a proper throne!

Now Henri repeatedly made fun of the plastic tray I ate upon and purchased an appropriate vintage silver-plated tray on ebay.  (Who gknew he had an account on ebay?!)

All I was missing now was a tiara and a prince.  I could buy myself the tiara easily enough.  Finding a Prince Charming would be considerably more difficult (and cannot be ordered from ebay).