Rediscovered: Fold Up Wooden Chairs

I work in NYC and I live outside of it so I take the train in everyday. My days are pretty routine: train, work, train, dinner, catch up on TiVo. So imagine my surprise when I pulled into the station and there are two lonely chairs curbside. They were pretty beat up though, enough that I really had to check them out if they were even worth grabbing. Of course, I was running late so I ran by them, gave my mom the thumbs up sign (I was still semi-blind from surgery so I wasn’t driving yet) and hopped on board. I did chuckle a little bit leaving the dirty work to mom.


Underneath the filth and the disgusting fabric I could tell them were gems. After a good cleaning we even found out they fold up!
A few coats of white spray paint, over a coat of base primer, some simple re-upholstery and ta-da! Possibly my most favorite rediscovering to date!

(notice the floors? update on that project later...)

Breakdown:

Matching chairs: FREE

1 can spray paint: $.97 (walmart brand)

fabric: $9.00

------------------

total: $9.97

Snags: none

Porch Makeover

Ok. It's been awhile. I know. My hiatus began right after I had corrective eye surgery which left me unable to read/ look at a computer for much longer than I expected. As for the weeks (months) after that, well, that's my own fault. But I'm ready to go now! And I have some great projects and before/afters to show you.
So as I mentioned a while back, I took on the project of revamping my neighbors porch. Ten cans of black spray paint later... I'm finished! (ok I could've kept going but budget, people, budget...)

Let's take a look at the "before" again..
No more white plastic furniture on this bad boy...

I think fern plants are the best bang for your buck. At just $10 each, they add a ton of energy and texture. And since they are so full, they filled out this table base turned plant stand perfectly!

Please excuse that I am a terrible photographer, these pictures do not do it justice :)

Breakdown:

metal bench: $4
wicker planter: $15
rocking chair: $15
wicker chair: FREE (rediscovered)
corner shelf: FREE (rediscovered)
side table: FREE (curbside find)
wrought iron planter: FREE (curbside find- actually the base of a table... rediscovered!)
accessories: $40
plants: $40
paint: $10
---------------
total: $124

Snags: Since the porch is so narrow, I had a lot of trouble breaking away from such a linear design (ie, everything pushed up against the same wall). Any ideas on how to add some dimension?