Thursday, February 23, 2012

Chair Makeover on a Dime

Here's a quick little ten cent re-do (yup the project only cost .10 cents!) on a trash picked chair. Back in December I found this chair sticking out of a trash can on my way home from work one night.  Although the sunlight was fading, with my eagle eyes I noticed the bent plywood back and strange legs and quickly flipped a u-turn and went back for it.  I felt that it deserved a better fate than the landfill!


 Nice curves huh?
I'm not sure of the exact age of this chair, but I think the base of it is older than the terrible mauve fabric on the cushions! They just screamed 1980's. I knew that they had to go! The cushions were a little damp from the drizzle that go to the chair before I did.  I preheated the oven to about 250 and popped them in there for a few hours.  It made quick business of drying out the foam and fabric! 

Now, here's where the time lapse comes in.  I knew that I wanted to recover the cushions, but I didn't like any of the fabrics I already had in  my scraps stash.  I put the chair down in the garage for almost 2 months while I was searching for just the right fabric.  Last week I was at the SPAN aka "Spay & Neuter" thrift store, that helps people pay for their pets to get fixed and other hospital bills (its a great place to shop just because of that) and lo and behold, they has some fabric samples in a basket in the back marked .10 cents each!  I grabbed a handful and chose this one for the chair:


It is bright and happy and I knew it will perk the chair right up!


.I had just enough to make it!  Lots and lots of staples later and here ya have it...


Viola!  Aint she purty?  The chair was free, the fabric .10 cents and even the staples were free (I borrowed them from my BF).  Total investment .10 cents and a little time & effort! 

From trash to treasure and saved from the lanfill!  Have you guys revamped and trash picked finds lately?

6 comments:

  1. That! Looks! Fabulous! I always hear about people recovering chairs to great results and here's a perfect example-- good "bones" + great fabric = great revamped chair. I like the tip about the oven and the foam pieces, as I'm a mold-a-phobe and wouldn't have even thought to try that before pitching the cushions. Good work, gal!

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    1. The cushions were curved to match the seat & back of the chair, I had to keep em! The oven seemed the best way to dry them out. I will say though, that the smell of vintage seat cushions baking in the oven isn't as pleasant as the scent chocolate chip cookies baking!

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  2. Wow, nice job, and you can't beat 10 cents! I love it!!

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  3. You totally rocked some life back into that neat old chair, super! Now I'm off to bake some delicious chocolate chip cushions! Mmmmm...

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  4. Looks great and Groovy and at $0.10 who could resist!

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  5. Love the bright colors! It reminds me of a Japanese kite!

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