Vintage Patio Chair Redo...

FINISHED~!

From "Damn"...

To "Glam"...

From "Ick"...

 To "Ooohhhh"...

From "Gross"...

To "Kudos"...

Everything is worth saving if you can just see through the dirt~!...

Curious what the process was and what steps it took to save these old, vintage chairs?

Just click on "Read More" - right below...

It was a DIRTY process saving these old, vintage chairs I found in an old shed...

Just tearing them apart to get to the basics was well, "Yucky"...

Dirt, spiders, mouse droppings, bugs, rust, dust, you name it, it came out of these old chairs when I started to tear them apart. There had been alot of water damage, it's obvious by looking at them. At first, I wasn't too sure I could save the wood seat and back frames. I was concerned. I had spent about a week studying them, before I started to tear in... Quite a few friends and visitors thought I should just throw them away. That wasn't even an option... They were going to go on my back patio and I had vision~!

I knew I could save them, it just took me some time to figure it all out in my head how I wanted them to look when I was finished... I didn't want to spend much money on the redo and I had some cheap upholstery material laying around from a previous purchase, but it was 'iffy' at best if I had enough yardage...

I tore them apart anyway and it took me a multitude of various tools to rip them apart. They were so rusty from the water damage that most of the screw heads had rusted away - I hate regular screw heads, but I hate rusted away regular screw heads even more...

And then, there were hundreds of nails to pull out of every piece of wood...

It was a nasty job that took me most of the day, but I was up for the challenge... I was motivated because I needed a couple more chairs on the back patio...

I finally got all the major 'ick' removed and got down to the basics of the cushions. They had previously been reupholstered 3 different times. They were once gold, blue and green in a former life...

Oh, the history you run into when you start ripping things apart...

I love vintage spring bottom chairs.

They are the most comfortable to sit on~!



When I finally got the spring bottoms tore down to the nitty gritty and hosed them off, it was like a mudslide running off of them - ewww... They did clean up quite nice though, considering what I was working with...



I had to 're-glue' the wood backs, to get them back into their half curve shape, as they desintegrated once I removed the old layers of rotten upholstery and padding...



I scrubbed the rust and dust off the metal frames and primered them and then, painted them an 'antique white'...

I covered the barrel backs with a doubled piece of quilt batting and then stretched an old piece of a quilted mattress pad over the batting and then stapled it in place...

(I wanted to do this redo as cheaply as possible with what I have on hand)

I knew I didn't have enough of one material in my hoard, so I improvised - I mixed things up a little bit on the patterns and added another pattern material for kicks and giggles and because I have this awful defect ~ I can't stand things to be the same pattern. I always, always find excuses to add different colors and patterns together - I'm a busy personality!







I used an old piece of foam from an old camper cushion to redo the bottom cushions...
I put some batting around the springs, put the foam on top of the springs, added a double layer of quilt batting and then tacked on an old curtain as a base...







I used the old, thick curtain as a base over the stuffing because I would need something to 'pull on,' to tighten everything and I barely had enough blue material to make it work. I was worried about pulling on the blue material because if I ripped it, I would be up the creek without a paddle and it was doubtful wether I could find more upholstery fabric around here for $1 a yard...

Yes, this cushion probably has 10,000 staples - lol
I don't scrimp on the staples when I'm playing with cushions... I need to have a contest with someone someday that touts themselves as a 'staple goddess'... Bet I would win...!



I stapled on the top fabric and a piece on the bottom to cover my 10,00- staples from view...





Not gonna lie... Standing on those cushions to squish them enough to fit my bits of fabric and stapling upside down/bent over was a bit nauseating. It would have been easier with 2 people, but I was short a person and I just couldn't get one of my dogs to help me out. They just wanted to lay around and watch the circus...

I put them back together the same way I took them apart and "Walla"...
Beautiful, vintage, patio chairs~!









And then, I found a plant stand in the shed and spray painted it to match too ~
Now, I just need to find a plant to fit in it...

I think, I'm going to redo one of my swings to match the chairs -
It will probably be in opposing fabric, but it will be a cute patio when finished...

Total cost of this project was about $12 using things I had on hand, improvising and being cheap about it.
Plus a couple days of my life...

=)

I think they turned out quite "Vintage"...

What do you think?

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