Help The Noobs!

 noob is a slang term for a novice or newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in any profession or activity.

When speaking about furniture restoration and redo's this would be me. So I'm begging asking you all for some help. We'll start with the easy questions.

This is a child size swan fainting couch. I bought it a couple of years ago on ebay. I liked it but hardly ever used it in my portrait photography, why? Well in photo speak it crossed keys and that drove me nuts. If I use it on a light background with a child in light colored clothing the dark wood draws the eye, on a dark background the light fabric was the problem. So I'm fixing the problem. I painted it a light creamy white, the actual name is "butter white" then distressed it a little, but now I think it needs a little stain or glaze to bring out the carving detail and darken it up just a touch. My noob problem is I have no idea what color to use. I see a lot of people use ebony stain on white, but this is creamy - would it still work???

Next - don't laugh this ones bad.

I know it sounds crazy but I want to keep the blue upholstery for now. I photograph a lot of baby boys and I have been wanting a blue velvet chair, but I want to paint the wood white. I was going to use an oil based spray paint primer. Do I need to remove the upholstery before painting, can it even be removed without ruining the fabric? Maybe I can just tape it off?? Stop laughing, I really have no idea!!!

Ok and finally we are at the "I may have bit off more then I can chew" section of the questions. What the heck do I do with this?!?!? :)

It has so many issues I don't know what to do with, but I love the bow pulls and decals. (is that what those things are called?) However both pulls on the middle drawer are broken, as well as both wheels on the right side.

Can I get reproduction pulls to match the existing ones? Do I swap out those pulls for something like glass handles? Maybe I put glass handles on the top drawers and use two of the pulls to put on the middle drawer? Do I get new wheels or just remove all of them?

And the very, very worst of it:

I'm going to paint this, but I don't know what to do with this pealing veneer. Do I repair what is there or take it off and sand and paint what's underneath? Or maybe I need to put a new veneer top on? Oh what should a poor noob do?

Stolen From Santa's Workshop

Can you believe this chair used to sit in Santa's workshop? Hopefully Santa won't believe it either!

This is what it looked like when the chairjacker brought it to me.

So I went to work. Scratched out the vin numbers, gave it a new paint job.

Added a little something, something to bring out all the carved details.

To show the beauty in it's aged inperfection.

Added a new vintage inspired fabric to the interior.

And that's my first sentimental redo. Shhhhhh, don't tell Santa!

My first parties, thanks to Miss M for walking me through it! Now let's see if I can post a button.