Monday, January 24, 2011

Trash to Treasure Chair

Hello all, hope you had a great creative weekend! This past weekend I was busy re-creating my living room, making it a little more soothing and bright. Along with that, I also got anxiety. Rug anxiety. I'll speak more about that next time. In the mist of creating this new feeling for the living room, I of course found myself shopping at a few thrift stores. As I have commented before, the thrift stores by my house think they are on Park Avenue or something. Its just getting borderline ridiculous anymore. Who in their right mind would spend $45 on a broken, ratty, thirty year old chair?? Or $100 on a couch that would find itself perfectly in a shot of the garage on That Seventies Show? I kid you not. And for that reason, I find myself not transforming furniture as often as I would like....because I'm cheap. And if I wanted a $100 couch I would just go to RC Willey's clearance sale.
Well, finally, after going into the store fifty million times and rolling my eyes at every chair in there, last week I found my eyes widening with disbelief, not rolling. A chair for $10??? Shut the front door! And it wasn't just an old country oak either like every other overpriced chair there. It actually had a cushioned seat and great lines! It looked like it was pulled in and out of a dumpster a few times and if I really knew how it got half of its stains, I probably would have bought it, then burned it for the sake of humanity. But, alas, ignorance is bliss.

The wood was chipped all over the place, the joints were coming out. When I sat on it, I felt like I was throwing caution to the wind.

If you look really closely, all that color on the seat are really stains, not pattern. just kidding...but, pretty much, the whole seat was flat out disgusting....both pattern and stains alike.

First things first, I sanitized that baby...every nook and cranny I could get into. Then I took of the seat, sent my sander to work getting the rest of the muck and crud off, and of course, prepping it for some new paint.

I found a couple of good joints that were completely loose, probably why it seemed like I was throwing caution to the wind when attempting to sit on it. On all the loose joints, I put a good dollop of wood glue on it and secured it tightly to dry.
Next, I took some good ol' 96 cent cans of white spray paint and went to town!

Next up was dealing with that darn seat. After holding my breath and removing the first layer of fabric, this old blue beauty sat underneath....nailed every two centimeters to the seat. Ugh. There was no way in this good nation I was going to try to pry it off. But, it was also as disgusting as the previous layer of fabric. So to keep my anxiety down I sanitized it, and then used some fabric cleaner to clean it up. I know I know....no one will ever see this...but it calms my heart

Next, I found some awesome fabric to cover the seat with. I took my staple gun and stretched that baby as tight as I could all around the seat.

Screwed the seat back on.

And who would have thought??? I can't get enough of this chair now!

......and before, I was straight up scared to even touch the darn thing.
Pretty aint she?
Its great what can happen when you look past the obviousness of gross and decrepit.

This is the before of the little corner in the living room.
Lots and lots of reds.
And the after!
Soothing and relaxing

The total cost for this was $14:
Chair: $10
Spray paint: $2
Fabric: $2

Before                             After

Stay tuned for more living room updates!