Upcycling a Chair: Trash into Treasure

So I am ALWAYS seeing furniture in the street that has been thrown out or left on the road to be trashed and the possibilities of such things makes me a little excited as well as a bit sad. Excited with all the potential things that can be done and sad because I can't take back EVERYTHING I find or my landlady would go nuts. This chair was actually in the reject zone of my building for about a week and I could not decide- to take or leave? After encountering it about five times I decided it had to come back upstairs with me, where it lived in my room for about a fortnight before I started work on it. In the meantime I visited England for a week and helped decorate a room, and the DIY bug was well rooted in me by the time I returned.

I started out by experimenting with the paints I had lying about seeing how they looked on the wood. As my new room is the bright blue colour I decided that this chair would be a bit boho crazy and opted for using the pink and purple. Once I decided I then gave it a good sanding and wipe over and left to dry.

After I painted the main body in the purple and the wicker back in pink. The wicker was a bit fiddly and took a while, going back and forth etc.

And more painting... I didn't actually do it all in one go as I did bits in between other jobs.

Once I had painted all of what I need to cover on the chair, I neatened the edges of the wicker back using a fine brush.

At this point it looked like this. As you can see I did not paint the seat. This is because I knew it would be covered with fabric and realized that I would be wasting time and paint.

Then the seat got removed....! Just with a craft knife, I hacked it out. And started cutting the tape to size. This "tape" is actually tape use for making curtains because I found it for 2 euro a pack at Ikea and it seemed very strong so I thought why not. And it worked so clearly it was ok. The tape I simply cut to size and stapled in place with a heavy duty staple gun on top of the chair to start with and then on the sides.

And the next one.

Once I had done all the horizontal ones, I started weaving vertical strips across. This is to make it stronger. And deff make sure you pull taunt on it every time you place a staple. This is very important.

Keep going until you have gone all the way around.

Then neaten and strengthen further by stapling on the sides and underneath, to the inside of the seat. By this point you will have a recognizable chair! I wanted padding on my seat so I did this next bit. But its optional.

I had some leftover stuffing from making a cushion and the outer shell of another cushion which I had used the stuffing from and used this to pad my chair. You could use foam or just sandwich the stuffing between two pieces of fabric, I just used what I had. 

I stapled this in place and trimmed the excess, also pushing the fuzz into the right places as I went (evenly).

I then placed the fabric on the chair to figure out pattern placement and cut it out. Then placed a few staples in the middle of each edge, pulling on it as I went to keep it tight.

The corners were fiddly. I stapled them as you can see, top left then cut the excess off.

Underneath it looked like this. I folded the fabric under and around the leg and went staple crazy. This was just for the front two legs.

For the back two legs I folded the fabric back, and cut the triangle off as you can see below.

I then folded the fabric around the leg and stapled in place. I did this for all the legs, always pulling on the fabric to keep it taut. 

And this is how it looked! But the staples were visible. I was careful to keep them in a straight line near the edge but its still ugly. So I bought 2m of some funky trim and used my glue gun to put it in place. 

Going all the way around, bit by bit.

Et voila!

Finished!

Up-cycling a Vintage Suitcase Part II

So a few months ago I undertook a suitcase renovation, which you can read about here. I have a HUGE luggage obsession. Back when I lived in the UK and was shuttling between uni and home I had a little collection going- at uni I had a steamer trunk and at home two large suitcases and a small 'un. I was consequently banned from collecting more (so I acquired a vintage leather doctor's bag). It's a sickness!

This suitcase I actually found whilst walking a dog, (I say "a" dog because he is not mine). I dragged it home on a bus, tram AND metro then up the several flights of stairs to get to my apartment. This turned out to be the easiest bit!

Furthermore I decided to make a game of it, lets see how LITTLE I can spend on this project and see what happens- I ended up spending under 2 euro, so I think this was a success.

(The quality of photos vary as some were taken in the middle of the night (!) and some on my phone, some on my camera etc, so I apologize for the inconsistency...)

WHAT YOU NEED

Paint (spray paint or acrylic is what I used)

PVA glue, lots of

A few old brushes

Some paper to cover the outside (I used wrapping paper from ikea but I would recommend something better quality)

Something to decorate the inside, more paper or an old book, or decoupage papers- whatever!

Paper clips are useful

Scissors

Ruler

Pencil

Double sided tape was handy too

Jam jar lid (for putting the glue and paint on)

Protective sheet or covering

Maybe gloves depending on your paint (I had green hands for a while)

Craft knife/stanley knife

So I started with this rather ugly and plasticy suitcase, it had no handles and two holes in the front. It was fairly solid and had no smell (unlike the last one). As it wasn't made of leather I decided it would be perfect for decorating inside AND out. The last one was too pretty on the outside to do anything other than clean up- this one however is just not doing anything for me beauty wise- a perfect DIY basis!

So I knew I would paint the metal bits as no matter what I covered it with, they are the places that will get the most friction and I knew paper would rip and fabric would fray. Plus it would be a pain to cover them and not look as good. Now as I was on a mission to do this on the cheap, I raided my cupboard and found some spray paint...

Now I realize now the colour is TOO much. I had envisioned the bright green metal and some crazy pinky fabric, but when I went to ikea to get the fabric, I didn't like it in person. The spray paint had been hiding in my cupboard for months so I figured WHY NOT?! Oops.

I spray painted all the metal bits (to the horror of the gardienne- the person that maintains the apartment buildings and sorts the mail etc). She made me leave so I had to continue in the "cave" (aka basement). 

As you can see it was kinda messy- especially when you are doing it at top speed to avoid getting caught again... I was still working in shared space- here is actually the exit to the courtyard. Dangerous territory....!

Next step was to take a book I had found and rip it up- I decided that this is what I would use to cover the inside.

I then proceeded to very messily paste the inside with PVA glue and plaster the inside with the book pages, every which way until the whole inside was covered.

Taken from my instagram here.

As you can see once I had covered the inside of the whole thing I took the front cover of the book and stuck that on too. I liked the addition of the red, I think this also influenced my later change of colour.

When glueing the pages down you do have to be a little careful to make sure you smooth out bubbles and that its ALL stuck down. I went over the edges and over the top with the glue to make sure it was thoroughly fixed as I did the whole inside.

I did go over the edges a bit, this is fine because you can just cut it off later.

Before doing the inside front I had to fill in the holes left by the handles. To do this I cut out some card to size and jammed it in the hole and then taped the whole lot up like this.

Then I kept glueing and papering until I had this:

I left it open for a day or two, at which point I went to Ikea to look for fabric, failed and got some wrapping paper instead (for 1.99!). Gah. I also decided that I really did not like the green and decided to beg borrow and steal acrylic paint- I struck gold with some red that a mate kindly lent me.

So I laboriously went back over the whole thing...

I had to do three coats of red and had to do this in stages. Do one side, let it dry, repeat. Repeat. Turn it over and do the whole lot again. Not fun. By this point I was really fed up of the mess. My room had become an obstacle course and getting to my wardrobe was hard work.

So once that was done I set to work covering it. This was NOT easy. I mean really not. It was really really fiddily. I spent a lot of time staring at it thinking "what. how. huh?" and in the end decided to stick it down and then cut around the metal. It almost worked.

I decided fixing the edges with double sided tape to hold it in place as I cut was the best bet. So here  just used double sided tape (two differing widths- this is for no reason, its just what I had).

Then I lay the paper over and smoothed out, pressing on the tape to keep it fixed.

THEN CAME THE FUN. HAHA. NOT....

I was feeling with one hand where the metal ended and with the other cutting the paper away. It was hardly accurate.

As you can see I messed up a lot and so resorted to patching it up.

I wasn't happy I had to do this but as the pattern is so busy you can't tell unless you look for it.

For the sides I did a similar thing.

Except when it came to the hinges at the back.

As you can see I cut slits to get the paper on easier, I then did the same cutting technique as before.

I then turned it upside down and measured the width of the gap between the metal and cut a strip long enough for the sides and bottom.

I lay it over and glued it down.

I was so sick of it at this point...

But I kept going, glueing, cutting etc.

FINALLY. For the inside edges I folded over the paper to that there was a rim all the way around (inside) of the wrapping paper, which you can see if you look carefully.

My chosen method of drying!

I then had to do all the final trimming and touch ups where I had chipped the paint etc.

And then came the mistake. 

I wanted to varnish it, and found this in the cupboard and so varnished the inside bottom. Oh dear....

It is still really patchy... I am not happy... So I don't really know what I will do. I have however, for now, decided to leave it as I am going back to the UK next week and can't leave my room in such a mess whilst I am gone.

I think overall it was a success. It certainly looks good from a distance. But right now it has no protective coating, I think more research is needed. Had it been just fabric I would have left it and called it done. It did take a LOT of time, however I spent virtually nothing as I had or knew someone who had everything I needed. I do think thicker paper would have been better though as it didn't hold up to lots of glue well. It was a battle of sorts but for now its done. And I am content. 

Now to clean up that huge mess...!