I have come down with a nasty cold, so the creative juices are a bit congested today. So, Ithought I would post some before and after pictures of the awesome chair that I redid last weekend. This is a picture of the chair as it was when purchased from Savers (I Love Savers! Another thing I missed in Louisiana; no thrift stores, understandable, but still…). If you look closely, you can see the $9.99 price tag. But I got it on a half off day. It is a sort of Danish Modern knock-off, dining room-doctor’s office waiting room, kind of chair, and it is sweet!
(Apparently there are issues with Blogger’s photo upload capabilities right now, so I will post the photos later; I know, I know; everyone wants to see the chair photos. Who doesn’t like pictures of furniture?) Issue fixed! Take a gander now! I like the blog as is, so I am not going to update the will bes etc..
Anyway, this is what I did to the chair in the above picture (well, it will be in the above picture):
1. Took off the nasty orange cushions; I thought the color was kind of cool, but the fabric was literally disintegrating under my fingers, and well, you can only imagine what diress my voluptuous behind would cause.
2. Took the horrible fabric off of the cushions using scissors, pliers, and a screwdriver. I found the screwdriver to be the best tool; it pried the staples out with the least effort.
3. Rather than cutting new foam (I was lazy and cheap), I hung the old pieces of foam (nasty yellow, with a few “water” spots) on the clothes line, and sprayed a good half bottle of Fabreze on them. Then, I let the country wind have its way with them.
4. Cleaned the wood with Murphy’s Oil Soap. Hmmm. Not so pretty when the grime is scrubbed away.
5. Sanded off the original finish with a palm sander I found in the garage. I used approximately ten sheets of sandpaper, which is a good indicator (to me anyway) that I was using the wrong grit. Oh well.
6. Scrubbed the bare wood with Murphy’s Oil Soap. Why? It just seemed like the right thing to do.
7. Applied some stain that I found in the garage. My parents just finished a major kitchen overhaul. My mom refinished all of the cabinets by herself. I am assuming this is the stain she used, because the chair is camouflaged (when naked, minus
cushions anyway) in the kitchen. Where’s the chair?
8. Reupholstered the cushions in an awesome retro-ish fabric. I used an ingenious (I thought so anyway) technique of hot glue gunning the final piece of fabric to the back of the top cushion so that staples were not seen on the finished chair.
9. Screwed the seat back in place.
10. Swore at the chair a few dozen times as I tried, with the dogs and cats as an audience, to screw the back in place.
11. Waited for my sister to get home to hold the chairback so that I could screw it in place, sending her more than one anticipatory (that’s a nice word for it) text messages.
12. Accosted my sister as she walked in the front door, grocery bags in hand, explaining the chair situation.
13. Screwed the chairback in place.
14. Viola! (Did I spell that right?) Fabulous chair, as you can of course (or at least will be able to soon) see in the picture below (actually to the left; hadn’t decided on a layout when I originally wrote this).
I feel awful. Off to a bath and book, and then out to my house for bed. Can you say excitement?
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21 October 2007 at 9:28 am
Louise
There was that one thrift store next door to headquarters. They didn’t like us very much and saw us as “competition.” (WTF?!?)
I remember the day our blonde co-worker bought a bunch of pants there because she had just worn out the two pairs she brought from Kansas. We were so excited to see her “new” clothes…
I also remember that when we were starting to shut down I found curtains back in that hidden conference room. I wanted to get rid of them, so I donated them to the thrift store. No one at HQ would claim ownership of those stupid, ugly curtains.
Can’t wait to see your chair