Trashed chair no more

Last weekend I found 3 chairs waiting by the curb for garbage pick up and brought them home with me.  I immediately thought of my daughter-in-law who  has been using folding chairs in her dining room and knew she would love some real wooden chairs that were painted to match her decor.  So here’s the before.

So ugly when found

I had a little work to do on the chair. There was the sanding, which was relatively easy. The varnish being old was ready to come off. I had wondered how hard it would be to sand the details on the front two legs, but they posed no problem.

Then I had a couple of repairs to make. The first was a broken joint.

Little Gorilla glue fixed that problem.

Then there was the back.

The right side is missing a piece.

I considered trying to repair the right side with a new piece of wood, but it was an odd thickness so choose option 2.  A quick whack with the hammer removed the piece on the left.  All that was left was to sand both sides down to look the same.

Then it was time to prime, paint and recover the worn, torn upholstery.  I used a stonewashed denim fabric I already had to blend in with the new chair color. I used more of the foam mattress topper I saved from the dumpster to make a new cushion.  I used two pieces for added thickness. It is so comfy now !

Total cost $0.  I already had the primer from the entertainment center redo, the white paint came from my son’s new house (leftover from the previous owners), the fabric I have had for nearly 8 years waiting for a project, the foam was a dumpster save, and well sandpaper I used almost two sheets, but I keep a stock in the house.

Here’s the final result.

I really need to get a better picture with better lighting, if it’s not raining tomorrow I’ll drag it outside for some real lighting.

Here’s a close up of the fabric against the painted wood frame.

If you enjoyed this, I found several chair make-overs for you to check out.

One Chair three ways.

Classic low back chair

Trash can chair I’m not the only one who pulls things out of dumpsters.

Tall Chairs with a gorgeous stencil

Updated cane chair