Happy Fall Dearest Bloggites!
Before this summer our chair situation at home was dire. We had a bizarro collection of dining room chairs that consisted of a few cafe chairs with too-small seats, a couple IKEA hand-me-downs, and a school chair we'd picked up on the streets of Brooklyn back when we couldn't even afford IKEA. On the porch we'd been through a few sets of cheapo lawn chairs from Target. It was a sad state of affairs.
While I was visiting the folks in Ohio, my dad took me to the annual Seville town-wide garage sale. While there we saw this funny dog whose owner was trying to sell his modified vintage VW. Apparently, his dog wasn't too keen on that idea because he would pace around and growl at anyone who tried to check out the car too closely.
Then his dog buddies from the neighborhood decided to join him which was hilarious.
So after the photo opportunity, I found this vintage lawn chair set in very nice condition. Two chairs and little table. Just what our porch needed!
So I managed to cram them into my Honda and drove them back to NY.
First we lightly sanded over the chairs to get any rough, rusty spots off. Then we got some metal furniture primer which comes in handy spray cans.
We chose our Krylon colors (went with a creamsicle theme).
This is when we realized we were going to need lots more cans. Like half a dozen more. Anyway, when all was said and done and we had inhaled lots of hazardous fumes we had brand spanking new/old chairs!
Ready for a summer cocktail!
As part of our former decrepit porch ensemble was an old Sunbeam aluminum lawn chair that some friends had foisted on us when they moved out of town. It basically disintegrated one day when someone sat in it.
 |
| So sad :( | |
|
We were going to pitch it but then I found out that you can buy new
webbing for these chairs and re-seat them yourself. So I ordered up the
kit and in about 20 minutes the chair had itself a lovely face lift.
 |
| Happy chair! |
My final chair project was the most satisfying one. I am a craigslist junkie and am always trolling around for treasures/crap-I-don't-need. I came across a set of Heywood-Wakefield chairs that a pair of empty nesters were getting rid off. It was a real steal to get six chairs in good condition. A few months later I got another, even better, deal of the mid-century.
It was a danish modern table that opened from a square to a rectangle
in perfect condition. A score for $75!!
 |
| Pip approves |
The only problem was that the chairs came covered in a less than desirable fabric.
I bought some Marimekko fabric on Ebay (another unhealthy obsession) and went to work. I had to rip out a lot of staples to get the original fabric off. The padding was in ok shape so I just cut the new fabric using the old as a pattern.
With Robin's help using a heavy duty mechanical stapler we nailed those suckers down one at a time. It took awhile to stretch the fabric so there weren't a lot of creases, especially in the corners, but it was so worth it. Look how cute!
So that covers just about every chair in the house. Going to go sit down now.
Byeeeee!
