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?

Have a Seat

I scored some cool stuff at an estate sale this weekend.  I was hooked by the signs exclaiming 1/2 off and followed the arrows to a cute little house that was a remodeled mid century home.  The last occupants had probably lived there since the 60's but had covered up a lot of the vintage charm of the house sometime in the 80's.  There wasn't much left at the sale but I did find two things that I had to have! 

 I bought this chair, pictured with Lucy, my old Dart wagon (which hauled the stuff home) for half off of $28.50.  It has a spring-rocker-action that is really cool.  It came with a custom fitted cushion that is covered in a yucky 1980's rose print fabric.  I will see if I can recover the cushion with something more age appropriate. Here it is in the living room with my other wire chair, an original Herman Miller Eames model which I found on its way to the dumpster.

I also found this red table in what looked like the sewing room of the house.  It is a homemade mash up of two different materials.  I believe the stand was from another table and the top looks like it was just a scrap piece of wood painted a nice red.  I like it because it is homemade and vintage at the same time!

 

I'm going to include it in the re-design of my bedroom.  I am taking out the "wall -o-curtains" and putting in a wall-o-chalk board.  My apartment is pretty wacky and seems to have been built out of whatever was laying around.  My bedroom is a closed in sun porch and not only has windows all the way around the outer wall, but has a window looking into the living room.

The curtains keep me from seeing into the living room and vice-versa.  If I pull them back I can watch tv from bed!

 

Peek-a-boo!

I'll take some after shots of the chalk board wall installation.  I'm painting it today and will set it up soon.  I can't wait!