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2 Little Hooligans

Free junk on the side of the road.

About a month ago my mom picked up 6 of these chairs on the side of the road for FREE. I knew I wanted to put them on the front porch but they needed a lot of work first. So finally after a few weeks of staring at them it finally hit me on what I wanted to do with them. I already had this great outdoor fabric that I picked up at JoAnn’s for another project but decided to use it on the chairs instead. I knew the colors would look great with my front doors.The hardest part about re-doing the chairs was actually getting started. Thankfully they were a very basic design and only had a few screws holding them together.  So once I removed all of the screws I spray painted the wood white with Rust-Oleum enamel spray paint (flat). Then all I needed to do was recover the upholstery. I decided to just go over the old fabric that was there instead of taking it off. I figured a little more fabric on the cushions would help keep the foam dry since they will be on the porch. Plus I didn’t want to remove all of that old fabric…just call me lazy. The seats of the chair were the easiest to recover. No sewing needed, just a lot of folding, stapling and tucking. The backs did need a little sewing and when I say a little, I mean a little. All I had to do was sew two seams on the side and then square off the corners.I’m pretty sure it couldn’t have gotten any easier then that.Once all of the cushions were recovered and the frames were dry all I had to do was reassembled the chairs back to together.The whole project was actually quick even though I had 6 chairs to do. Sometimes the hardest part is just figuring out what to do and actually getting started. All 6 chairs took about an afternoon to do and really they would have been done in just a few hours if it wasn’t for letting the paint dry. Unfortunately the whole project cost a little more then I would have liked but I think that $70 for the whole project wasn’t that bad considering new chairs would have been way more then that. Of course I could have bought a cheaper fabric but sometimes you just have to go with what you like best. So the next time you (or your mom) drive by some free junk on the side of the road just think of all the possibilities… sometimes all it needs is a little (or a lot) of TLC!

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Comments

  2. Those are lovely! I have a side-of-the-road chair sitting in my garage. It will need sewing, but I am having the worst time getting started! I need to take it apart (carefully) to make a pattern, maybe replace some foam, etc. I might get Ikea fabric (and it turns out it’s just a $99 Ikea chair–so, no guilt if I mess up), but I had no idea Joanns had such nice fabric!

    My chair will be inside, but I might opt for outside fabric to help protect it from kids and cats LOL.

  4. I love them!! The fabric is absolutely perfect, and I bet if they saw the chairs now they’d want them back! Thanks for the inspiration, I need to work on some household projects!

  5. Super cute chairs! Love that fabric! Isn’t freebie stuff/junk off the side of the road the best? I picked up a hutch top, spray painted it and a tv stand I had, combined the two to make a hutch and it is one of my favorite pieces of furniture!

  6. LOVE LOVE LOVE these chairs! We don’t have JoAnn’s here – but Ikea has funky fabric like this 🙂

  7. I love that fabric. I always sigh away from big print, lots of color fabric….but I love that! I need to buy some next time I see some I like.

  8. Beautiful chairs! They SERIOUSLY match your door. Love love love!

    And, I so wish I had your get-up-and-go when it comes to remodeling and redoing my home. Ok, okay…. I don’t have nearly the same motivation as you’d had, but we’ve lived here over 5 years and the only room anywhere near done — Joey’s. And I still need to paint the ceiling and trim in that room….2.5 years later.

  9. Love the chairs! My mom is also excellent at seeing potential in road-side “gifts.” I think $70 is a bargain for your designer looking chairs! Nice job!