Trash to Treasure

 A long time ago, I mentioned that I had snagged a couple of chairs from the side of the road. There was nothing wrong with them but a bit of ugly.

The mission was to paint and change the fabric. So off came the cushion. And the chair was sanded. (I could have sworn I took pictures of this part, but I can't find them.)

I used Rustoleum's Heirloom White spray paint. Each chair took a can and a half. I'm not getting perked to say this, but I think the claim that a can of Rustoleum covers twice as much as other brands is true. I does seem to cover more than others, but that said, you have to go with what you like.

After painting, I decided to distress them a bit. I just hit them in the places that might sustain wear with my hand sander, Hermes. Yes, I named him. Doesn't everyone name their tools?


And remember how I waxed poetic about finishing wax in this post? (Pun intended, of course!) I rubbed on a coat of the wax paste, let it dry about fifteen minutes, and then buffed. I love how wax finishes pieces!


On to the cushion. I needed my new fabric, scissors, and a staple gun. Staple guns are awesome and useful for so many things. Seriously, go get one if you don't have one.

I laid my cushion on my fabric and cut around to size with a few extra inches all around.

Then I stapled one staple in the center of each side. Pull taut, but don't over do it. If you have a pattern like my toile you risk making the pattern skewed.

Then I worked along the front and stapled across the whole side, then back and then each side. For the corners, staple in very close to the corner. Fold and tuck the excess fabric (not unlike wrapping a present), 

pull tight and staple like crazy.

Once secure, trim excess fabric. And repeat with the other corners. 

You will have something like this:

Now it's time to re-screw the cushion to the chair.

I really love the toile with the distressed white chair.

And the distressing worked, but I think it was more dramatic on the black desk.

I like the desk and I like the chair, but the jury is still out on whether or not I like them together. I never really planned on keeping the chairs, I just didn't think they should be trashed. I may still just sell them.

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