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

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total: $9.97

Snags: none

ReDiscovered: Brass Stool

This bench (also seen in place here) has been living in my bedroom even longer than I have and I even remember climbing on it to play with my grandma’s makeup when I was a little girl. So even though we all (admit it) hate that brass base, I held on to it. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how heinous something is, we still need to hang on to it.

Luckily, I realized there was no reason for this lovable bench to live a life of shame, so I grabbed the pliers, flipped her over, and started to take out her staples. In the garbage went the faux leather, and out came the white spray paint (is there anything this can’t fix?). The foam was still in great shape, so there was no reason to replace that, especially with the button holes already there and in the correct spots.

While the first coat of white was drying, I stapled the new fabric around the existing fiberboard and foam.
So fresh and so clean clean!

The old buttons were a little dingy so I purchased a button kit and made new ones. I thought this was going to be difficult… so simple.

A few more staples to keep the buttons taught, a couple more coats of paint, and there you have it!
Breakdown:

Bench $0
Fabric $2.70 (50% off at Joann’s Fabrics… ½ yard was more than enough)

Button Kit $3.00
White Spray Paint $0 (found in the garage, but I am a big advocate of the $.97 Walmart brand)
Total $5.70

Snags:

I would have lightly sanded the base to rough it up a little, the paint wasn’t really grabbing on too well, and in some spots sort of “pooled”. In those areas I sanded the paint smooth and did some touching up.