La Bete Noire "The Black Beast"

There is a classic French chocolate cake called Le Bete Noire or The Black Beast.  It is a decadent, dense, delicious flourless cake that I kept thinking about while I was working on this chair,
so that's what I named it.  I wish I took a before picture, but just think high gloss cherry of the late '80s or early '90s with a seat covered in a navy and gold fabric.  The seat didn't even go with this chair, my husband had to cut it down to fit.  He is so talented! 
This chair sat in my computer room for about a month and a half staring at me, waiting for me to make up my mind what to do with it.  At first I thought I would paint it a French blue or antique white but neither seemed right.  Then my mother in law thought I should just leave it with the finish it had.  I kind of played with that idea for a while thinking I would just recover the seat in a leopard print but it just wasn't right.  It finally hit me that this was more Spanish then French, so I decided on black.

I sprayed it a satin black but the back kept messing up and dripping.  I think I sanded it back and re-sprayed that area three times.  Then I highlighted all of the detail with Martha Stewart's Thundercloud metallic paint, and scratched back a few edges.  The highlight is really subtle but it shines in the right light.  I was still trying to figure out what fabric to use for the seat, then it hit me that I had some teal fabric I got this spring for next to nothing.  So here is my beast, what do you think, thumbs up or thumbs down?