Turn A Chair With a Missing Arm into a Gossip Chair

So my sister who is a garage sale fanatic often picks me up treasures to do my thing with.  This is how she brought me this beauty she found for me.  

In perfect condition except one tiny little thing.  It was missing an arm.  The gal she got it from had planned to fix it but then lost the arm.  

At first I thought I could just leave it with one arm and cut the front piece off but the back needed the support of an arm.  So then I decided I wanted to add some sort of table where the arm had been.  Even though I had a plan it still took me almost a year to do it.  I could never decide on a shape to make the table.  I figured I'd wait until I found something that spoke to me. 

I finally found it.  I picked up this piece with some other cool random wood from a friend of my Mother in Laws.  She said it used to be part of an old organ.  I love the shape and the carved detail.  I used my jig saw to round the front corner to mirror the other arm.  To find the back angle I used the old eyeball it and cut 800 times method.   

Then I drilled a hole into the arm post for a dowel to fit into. 

I set the table in position and traced the post onto the bottom so that I could drill a hole into the underside of it.  To attach to the back I made a pocket hole and screwed it in.

For the additional support I used a spindle that I had.  It was one of those used for a stair railing.  I screwed it into the side of the chair seat and glued and nailed it to the top.  

To get the angles I used my builders square.

Then I laid the square on the spindle and drew lines so I could line up my chop saw.   It turned out very sturdy. 

I stained the new parts to match because I planned to paint and distress it. 

I painted with ASCP in Old White.  

I used clear then dark wax to really make the carving detail pop.  Love it. 

When I removed the bottom fabric I decided I liked the look with just the webbing. 

I am digging how it turned out.  It's a fun one of a kind piece.