Can a 55-year-old woman be a Swiftie? Of course she can! After all, Taylor Swift creates music that women my age wish was around to help us define our emotions and feelings when we were young. I remember driving my daughters to school in the mornings and hearing Taylor sing Tim McGraw on the radio.
We loved her from the beginning, so attending her concert was a long time coming. I wholeheartedly believe that if you want to feel young, you do what the young people do … they go to Taylor Swift concerts. So, after unsuccessfully trying to get tickets to The Eras Tour in the United States, my daughters and I landed concert tickets in Amsterdam for July 4.
At first, I declared I would make a chair to commemorate the entire tour, but as I thought about it, it made better sense to create a chair for each of her 10 albums. I would release one chair monthly in my countdown to attend the concert and bring my audience along for the ride. To keep them guessing which album was next, I randomly selected one album to focus on and dove into the design.
But first, I had a lot of catching up to do. I knew some of her earlier albums much better than the latter ones, so the journey began by listening to her newer albums. And I had to figure out what each album would look like if it were a chair.
On the surface, my process for creating these chairs appeared similar to my other projects. First, I had to find the right chair frame and then hunt down the best fabrics to convey the album’s meaning. But what was different was the lack of rules I had to abide by. I didn’t have a client saying they liked certain colors or specific styles. These chairs didn’t have to go in a particular room with a specific decor. I only had Taylor’s words and music from each album to guide me in my interpretation, so my imagination ran wild.
Some designs came easy, and others were more challenging. I wanted to try new things, push myself and delight my audience.
Let me take you through my journey …
It’s in my nature to love a challenge, so I started with an unfamiliar album, Lover. I studied the songs, watched Taylor’s videos and brainstormed ideas for bringing Lover to life in a chair. I always returned to this guiding principle: What would it look like if this album was a chair? Based on what I saw, I knew I needed bright, fluorescent pink fabric and roses, the flower of love. A white-painted frame would not do the trick, so I picked pale pink to symbolize the pastel colors shown on the album cover. Then, I attached the pink roses to cover the entire backside.
The next album I tackled was Reputation. I was sure I wouldn’t like this album … it seemed dark and vengeful. And it was all about snakes — a creature I’m not fond of. But the songs on this album entirely surprised me. Yes, it was dark and raw with emotion (Taylor had just come through controversy and attacks that threatened to take away her reputation and career), but it also had hope and hidden love songs throughout. I found the perfect green fabric with cut-velvet snakes and rummaged through my chair frames and selected a gothic-style Victorian chair. The chair frame needed to be multidimensional to compete with the rich fabric, so I painted the frame black and layered it with shades of dark green and teal — and glitter. The result was edgy, dark and sophisticated … perfect for her Reputation album.
When I found the next chair frame, it was a no-brainer that it would be my Folklore chair, an album driven by storytelling. The faux bois chair style, popular in France in the 1800s, resembles tree trunks. I selected an embroidered floral fabric, green velvet for the seat, then trimmed the backside of the frame in moss and applied the embroidered fabric down the leg. With each chair, I found myself caught up with the design — asking what else I could do here — but my eye could always tell when I was done.
The Midnights chair needed to be dark, but I didn’t want to go with a flat black or dark blue velvet. When I found a rich black velvet with sparkles like diamonds, I knew it was the perfect fabric. The album has a song, Bejeweled, in which Taylor talks about wanting to sparkle, so the backside needed sequins that sparkled, too. The Victorian frame got a fresh coat of black paint, and I tipped the feet in liquid gold to give it a classy look.
I found a soft gold velvet fabric for the Fearless album, and then the right chair appeared. I drew inspiration from many of her album covers and past concert outfits. On this album cover, Taylor is swinging her hair to one side and the Victorian chair I found resembles that picture. I painted the frame gold and embellished the top with rhinestones.
Evermore is the sister album to Folklore, but darker in nature. So, I chose a coordinating embroidered fabric with a black background and a deep purple velvet. The frame’s aged finish was perfect for the front, but I sanded the backside down to showcase the original wood to add some contrast. The cutout flowers were perfect for trimming the seat and keeping the bottom half of the chair from being too dark and bland.
Red is my favorite album of all time, but surprisingly, the design of this chair was the most difficult to figure out. I envisioned black and white striped sequined fabric in my head, but I couldn’t find it until I saw a Ralph Lauren dress on Poshmark. I’ve rarely used clothing on a chair, but it created the perfect look. The chair also needed some red, hence the album’s title, but not just any red velvet or linen would do. I went for a sparkly red vinyl trimmed in silver decorative tacks and added a red-sequined heart to the backside. The final embellishment was the red scarf, which ties to the iconic song All Too Well on this album.
The first idea for the 1989 album (the year Taylor was born) involved my favorite Guess jean jacket I wore in 1989 as a teenager. I purchased an identical one online. But I had no ideas other than the seagulls on the album cover. To keep with the beach/rugby vibe, a blue and white seat fabric seemed the best idea. The tricky part was how to put the jean jacket on the chair. As I began cutting and stapling, I realized I could sweep the collar around the top of the chair — sometimes, the knowing comes in the doing. A friend created the patchwork seagulls in various sizes. I cut out the “Made in America” tag from inside the jacket and the Guess label and put them on the front side. Ultimately, this design tied both my and Taylor’s pasts together.
From the beginning, I knew that the Speak Now chair would have a skirt. Searching for a chair that could handle the skirt was critical to this design to mimic Taylor’s purple ball gown. I chose a basic chair that had an indentation at the top. I had several yards of a velvet floral that I felt would be adorable for this chair, so I covered the frame in lavender paint to help it blend with the fabric. I added tulle under the skirt to give it fullness. Bring on the wedding party!
I needed a rustic look, complete with blue jeans and butterflies, to keep with Taylor’s eponymous debut album’s country vibe. I sanded down the frame of the chair, and found a stencil and added the blue and green butterflies to the backside. The floral fabric for the front trim symbolized her youth at the time. The only thing left to the imagination was the seat and, since her hair was curly back then, a Mongolian pelt seemed the best option. It’s the perfect look for who she was initially and shows how far she has evolved over the years.
I knew I wanted to do something special with these chairs, not just sell them. I’ve had a longstanding passion for helping families who struggle with poverty. Every Thursday, I go out for my walk and see a line of cars waiting to get food from a shelter behind my house. The hardship is real for many nowadays. To make a difference, these chairs will go up for auction this fall and the proceeds will be given to this local food shelter. See, even Taylor Swift-inspired chairs can do some good!
This project taught me many lessons, but most of all, it reinforced what I’ve known as an artist: embrace the uncomfortable, trust the creative process and enjoy the ride. Sometimes, you can’t envision what you want something to become, so you start by taking the first step. The knowing comes in the doing.
And just when I thought I was done, a new album appeared and another chair must be added to the collection for this tour … the job never ends.
Can a 55-year-old woman be a Swiftie? Of course she can! After all, Taylor Swift creates music that women my age wish was around to help us define our emotions and feelings when we were young. I remember driving my daughters to school in the mornings and hearing Taylor sing Tim McGraw on the radio.
We loved her from the beginning, so attending her concert was a long time coming. I wholeheartedly believe that if you want to feel young, you do what the young people do … they go to Taylor Swift concerts. So, after unsuccessfully trying to get tickets to The Eras Tour in the United States, my daughters and I landed concert tickets in Amsterdam for July 4.
At first, I declared I would make a chair to commemorate the entire tour, but as I thought about it, it made better sense to create a chair for each of her 10 albums. I would release one chair monthly in my countdown to attend the concert and bring my audience along for the ride. To keep them guessing which album was next, I randomly selected one album to focus on and dove into the design.
But first, I had a lot of catching up to do. I knew some of her earlier albums much better than the latter ones, so the journey began by listening to her newer albums. And I had to figure out what each album would look like if it were a chair.
On the surface, my process for creating these chairs appeared similar to my other projects. First, I had to find the right chair frame and then hunt down the best fabrics to convey the album’s meaning. But what was different was the lack of rules I had to abide by. I didn’t have a client saying they liked certain colors or specific styles. These chairs didn’t have to go in a particular room with a specific decor. I only had Taylor’s words and music from each album to guide me in my interpretation, so my imagination ran wild.
Some designs came easy, and others were more challenging. I wanted to try new things, push myself and delight my audience.
Let me take you through my journey …
It’s in my nature to love a challenge, so I started with an unfamiliar album, Lover. I studied the songs, watched Taylor’s videos and brainstormed ideas for bringing Lover to life in a chair. I always returned to this guiding principle: What would it look like if this album was a chair? Based on what I saw, I knew I needed bright, fluorescent pink fabric and roses, the flower of love. A white-painted frame would not do the trick, so I picked pale pink to symbolize the pastel colors shown on the album cover. Then, I attached the pink roses to cover the entire backside.
The next album I tackled was Reputation. I was sure I wouldn’t like this album … it seemed dark and vengeful. And it was all about snakes — a creature I’m not fond of. But the songs on this album entirely surprised me. Yes, it was dark and raw with emotion (Taylor had just come through controversy and attacks that threatened to take away her reputation and career), but it also had hope and hidden love songs throughout. I found the perfect green fabric with cut-velvet snakes and rummaged through my chair frames and selected a gothic-style Victorian chair. The chair frame needed to be multidimensional to compete with the rich fabric, so I painted the frame black and layered it with shades of dark green and teal — and glitter. The result was edgy, dark and sophisticated … perfect for her Reputation album.
When I found the next chair frame, it was a no-brainer that it would be my Folklore chair, an album driven by storytelling. The faux bois chair style, popular in France in the 1800s, resembles tree trunks. I selected an embroidered floral fabric, green velvet for the seat, then trimmed the backside of the frame in moss and applied the embroidered fabric down the leg. With each chair, I found myself caught up with the design — asking what else I could do here — but my eye could always tell when I was done.
The Midnights chair needed to be dark, but I didn’t want to go with a flat black or dark blue velvet. When I found a rich black velvet with sparkles like diamonds, I knew it was the perfect fabric. The album has a song, Bejeweled, in which Taylor talks about wanting to sparkle, so the backside needed sequins that sparkled, too. The Victorian frame got a fresh coat of black paint, and I tipped the feet in liquid gold to give it a classy look.
I found a soft gold velvet fabric for the Fearless album, and then the right chair appeared. I drew inspiration from many of her album covers and past concert outfits. On this album cover, Taylor is swinging her hair to one side and the Victorian chair I found resembles that picture. I painted the frame gold and embellished the top with rhinestones.
Evermore is the sister album to Folklore, but darker in nature. So, I chose a coordinating embroidered fabric with a black background and a deep purple velvet. The frame’s aged finish was perfect for the front, but I sanded the backside down to showcase the original wood to add some contrast. The cutout flowers were perfect for trimming the seat and keeping the bottom half of the chair from being too dark and bland.
Red is my favorite album of all time, but surprisingly, the design of this chair was the most difficult to figure out. I envisioned black and white striped sequined fabric in my head, but I couldn’t find it until I saw a Ralph Lauren dress on Poshmark. I’ve rarely used clothing on a chair, but it created the perfect look. The chair also needed some red, hence the album’s title, but not just any red velvet or linen would do. I went for a sparkly red vinyl trimmed in silver decorative tacks and added a red-sequined heart to the backside. The final embellishment was the red scarf, which ties to the iconic song All Too Well on this album.
The first idea for the 1989 album (the year Taylor was born) involved my favorite Guess jean jacket I wore in 1989 as a teenager. I purchased an identical one online. But I had no ideas other than the seagulls on the album cover. To keep with the beach/rugby vibe, a blue and white seat fabric seemed the best idea. The tricky part was how to put the jean jacket on the chair. As I began cutting and stapling, I realized I could sweep the collar around the top of the chair — sometimes, the knowing comes in the doing. A friend created the patchwork seagulls in various sizes. I cut out the “Made in America” tag from inside the jacket and the Guess label and put them on the front side. Ultimately, this design tied both my and Taylor’s pasts together.
From the beginning, I knew that the Speak Now chair would have a skirt. Searching for a chair that could handle the skirt was critical to this design to mimic Taylor’s purple ball gown. I chose a basic chair that had an indentation at the top. I had several yards of a velvet floral that I felt would be adorable for this chair, so I covered the frame in lavender paint to help it blend with the fabric. I added tulle under the skirt to give it fullness. Bring on the wedding party!
I needed a rustic look, complete with blue jeans and butterflies, to keep with Taylor’s eponymous debut album’s country vibe. I sanded down the frame of the chair, and found a stencil and added the blue and green butterflies to the backside. The floral fabric for the front trim symbolized her youth at the time. The only thing left to the imagination was the seat and, since her hair was curly back then, a Mongolian pelt seemed the best option. It’s the perfect look for who she was initially and shows how far she has evolved over the years.
I knew I wanted to do something special with these chairs, not just sell them. I’ve had a longstanding passion for helping families who struggle with poverty. Every Thursday, I go out for my walk and see a line of cars waiting to get food from a shelter behind my house. The hardship is real for many nowadays. To make a difference, these chairs will go up for auction this fall and the proceeds will be given to this local food shelter. See, even Taylor Swift-inspired chairs can do some good!
This project taught me many lessons, but most of all, it reinforced what I’ve known as an artist: embrace the uncomfortable, trust the creative process and enjoy the ride. Sometimes, you can’t envision what you want something to become, so you start by taking the first step. The knowing comes in the doing.
And just when I thought I was done, a new album appeared and another chair must be added to the collection for this tour … the job never ends.
