Plum Happy With This Refurbished Desk Chair: under $3

I needed three chairs for my new studio space. I get tired of moving my chair around from one workspace to another, especially when I'm both sewing and serging.

I found a very plain old wood desk chair in my basement, left there by a previous owner. It was the perfect junk chair on which to practice some upcycling skills.

Here's what it looked like before the make-over:

I unscrewed and removed the chair seat. The plywood base was not in the greatest shape, but after looking it over, I decided it was still usable. I put wood glue into any hole that seemed loose, and then, lacking the necessary clamps to hold it in place - I did what any woman would do - I tied it tightly with ribbon. I have a lot of ribbon. And it seems to have worked okay. If any of you men out there want to try my ribbon clamping method instead of your industrial man clamps, feel free.

The middle piece on the back was loose, and while I was gluing it, I found that I preferred the look of it in the upward curve, rather than the downward curve, so I glued it in place the way I liked it.

It got a chance to dry really well, because my weekend ended, and I had to finish it the next weekend.

I spray painted it a deep plum color.

 

I covered the chair seat with a double layer of mid-weight plum colored corduroy. I went right over the icky, torn, paint-spattered vinyl that was already on it. You need to take your time with the corners and fold them nicely, all tucked in. I stapled the fabric to the underside of the wood chair seat. 

 

Then I re-attached the seat to the chair with the screws I had removed earlier.

I'm happy with it.

Cost:
Chair: free
Paint: under $3
(The corduroy was a just scrap of fabric I had in my fabric stash, so I'm not including it in the price, but either way - it would be a nominal cost addition.)

Let's Polka! (...Dot Shade) This Old Floor Lamp: $36

I bought this pair of floor lamps for $2.00 at an auction last fall. Yes, they had seen better days. But they were heavy, with great bases, and I thought it would be fun to re-make them. The one shown above started out as the one on the left in the pic below.

I removed all of the (very) old cord and light socket. Spray painted the base and the pole green. Replaced the light fixture with one that I'd picked up at Home Depot (easy instructions on the back of the package).

And when I plugged it in, and turned it on - it lit up! Yay!

I'd bought a self-adhesive shade at Joann Fabrics. It would likely be less expensive to buy a shade and spray mount the fabric but since I'd never covered a shade before, I thought it would be easier to use the self-adhesive one.

I covered the shade in a fabric I purchased from the fabric store, and hot glued the pompom trim around the base of it. I also purchased the closest shade of bias tape I could find, and glued it around the top of the shade (use Eilene's Tacky Glue for this step, so the bias tape dries flat) because I don't like a raw edge showing on anything. You probably won't be able to match your fabric color exactly, but the neatness of the seam binding makes it all seem less obvious anyway. (If you're good with an iron, you could also cut and make your own binding from the lampshade fabric. Especially if the fabric has just a little bit of stretch of give to it, and wouldn't need to be cut on the bias.)

This is a very heavy duty lamp, and I love the detail on the base.

I'm happy with it.

Cost:
Old floor lamp: $1
Paint: $3
Self-adhesive lamp shade: $14
Fabric to cover the shade: $5
Pompom edging: $4
Light socket replacement: $9
               total = $36

Chapter 3: In Which An Old Chair Adopts Me: $0

My neighbor was getting rid of this old chair last week. And although I didn't need any more chairs, the more I looked at it - the more I liked it. It was quite old, with the original upholstery, and just the right amount of scuff on the cute spindled legs.

I took it home, intending to perhaps have a try at recovering it, and maybe painting the legs a soft yellow color. I brought it inside, vacuumed it thoroughly, and just left it sitting for a day. It sort of fit right in with my other furniture somehow. The upholstery is a beautiful shade of blue/teal, with a lovely leaf pattern woven into the fabric. And although it's obviously been used and is a little bit worn looking, it's in a way that suggests a cozy history, rather than a need for repair.

In the end, I decided to keep it. No paint, no re-upholstery. I searched on Etsy for exactly the right handmade crocheted vintage throw in a soft butter yellow shade, to toss over the back of it.

My brain tells me the legs should be antiqued with a soft yellow paint too, but I like the lightly scuffed wood too much to do it.

It stays the way it is.

Kitty Vegas likes it. A lot. I can hardly get her out of it.

I'm happy with it.

Cost:
* Chair: free
* Hand crocheted vintage throw: under $10 from Etsy (including shipping).

Channeling Hemingway

 

I found this beautiful old typewriter last fall at a little vintage/junk/antique shop up north. I think it's from the early 1930's and I recall paying around $35 for it.

And yes, it still works fine. 

Although I would not like to type out a manuscript on it. The keys require some pretty heavy pressing.

No upcycling involved in this purchase, although it did need a bit of cleaning. And I added some baby oil to the ribbon rolls to moisten the ink.

It sits on my living room coffee table now.

I'm happy with it.

Muggly Mirror to Charming Chalkboard: under $7

About a year ago, Dad graciously gave me insisted I take home a very ugly mirror that apparently, in some moment of temporary bad judgement, he and Mom had bought at a garage sale.

It was cheaply made, an old, scratched up thing, but I duly brought it home, where it stood in a corner of my basement until I could decide if it had a use or not. For a year or so, it did not.

But I am now setting up an art room/studio in my house, and my plan is to furnish it as much as possible with things I already have, so as not to spend a lot of money on it.

An idea dropped into my head one day, to make an over sized chalkboard for the studio so I could keep track of needed supplies. I realized the ugly mirror would be the perfect starting point for it.

The project took about a morning's worth of time on a recent Saturday.

The mirror looked like this:

 

 I cleaned it up and separated the mirror from the frame.

 Sprayed the frame with blue Rustoleum paint (I used about half a can of the spray paint).

Sprayed the mirror with several coats (I used the entire can) of Rustoleum black chalkboard paint.

I placed the chalkboard back into the frame and painted 'needs & wishes' at the top, with some Apple Barrel blue paint I had on hand that was a close match to the blue Rustoleum paint. 

Cost breakdown: 

* Mirror: free. 

* Paint: under $7.

It works. I'm happy with it.