Extreme Makeover: Desk Chair Edition

Sometimes things just have too much potential to be thrown away. This 60s desk chair from my friend Scoobie's workplace was about to hit the trashbin....

With its ripped avocado green vinyl seat and a cushion that had broken down over time, her employers were prepared to replace it with a new high-tech number.

Scoobie, however, saw makeover potential and conferred with a consultant.

Or, well, me.

Her total investment was in discount remnant fabric from JoAnn's, a new cushion purchased with a half-off coupon, and some paint and topcoat from Michaels-- also half-off.

Here's Scoobie removing the chair back...

And here's the much-used cushion set which will get reupholstered by the, er, consultant.


To soften the silver-steel look of the chair, Scoobie gave the chair frame a number of coats of a light bronze paint...


After that, she hit it with a few coats of clear topcoat.

Then I went into action. All I used was a pair of shears and my handy-dandy staple gun. I hadn't upholstered a chair with a cushioned back before, so this was a bit new for me. Usually they were standard hard-backed dining chairs.

The key to this particular project was in trying to make sure the stripes were not only evenly distributed on bottom cushion and top cushion, but that they were relatively aligned between the top and bottom cushions themselves.

In retrospect, it could be a little straighter, but considering this was the first time I'd attempted it, I'm pretty happy. I think it's not overly off.

For the bottom cushion, it's a simple case of cutting to fit, and working your way around the seat, ensuring the fabric is pulled taut and each side has at least one staple in it, holding everything in place. Then fill in the rest of the staples, leaving room for the chair screw holes.

For the top cushion, the fabric went over the front, then folded from the bottom over the back. So basically I was working on two sides at once.

And soon.... here we had the finished chair!


Here's a little closer view...

Quite a difference, eh?


Just goes to show, one employer's trash really can become another office jockey's heirloom posh bum-rester. :)

Now before we go today, I wanted to just take a moment to thank you all for reading the Thrift Shop Romantic. This last Friday marked the third bloggiversary of this little place on the Internet. Three whole years have gone by-- can you believe it? In the world of blogging, that means TSR is no spring chicken!

But it couldn't have been done without you all. Over the years, I've appreciated your interest, your notes, your comments, your questions and overall, your kindness.

So I think we have much to celebrate! Have yourself a piece of virtual cake and some sherbet punch and party on, friends!

I hope to see you again Wednesday!

Talking Trash

Dumpster diving, roadside reappropriation, trash-to-treasure, or curbside shopping… No matter what you call it, scouring the roadside on bulk trash day can yield some terrific furniture finds.

The trick is to be suave about it...

Or simply shameless.

Now, MY technique? Well, I may SOUND bold here in the safety of my comfy Internet home. But when it comes down to the actual ACT of garbage-picking, I am a big ol’ scaredy-cat-- deeply afraid of embarrassing myself.

Not that that prevents me from TAKING the trash, of course. It just means I lean more toward the Stalking method.

You know the Stalking method? I see a potential find… size it up... drive by... maybe drive by again, and wait for the perfect unobtrusive moment... to pop it in my trunk, dive behind the wheel and burn rubber.

It’s kind of like a Mafia kidnapping...

So I hear.
Now if the item is on MY street, I might saunter out onto my front porch and pull at a stray weed or two, keeping the prey in my peripheral vision.

I listen for traffic... la, la, just me weeding here, nothing to see...

Wait for the guy walking the pug to go by… “Yes, hello, sir, howya doing? Nice day. Fine pug...”

Allow three minutes for the curly tail to shrink safely into the distance and...

Go!- GO!- GOOOOO!

Like a Navy Seal on a tactical mission except, you know, not in water or actually athletic, I run across the road, a red-headed blur, and seize the item.

A glance right, a glance left, and another lightning fast jaunt, and I’m home safe with my prize.

I waited out my first roadside chair for FOUR HOURS, stalking that thing until my neighbors-- who were chatting on their front porch-- finally went inside and allowed me to get down to business.



In those days, I was right out of college, had nothing to my name but three milk crates and a fold-out bed, and I really needed the furniture.

And the chair was a sweet little 1930s number with Tudor legs and a bad wood finish-- but lots of potential.

Today it’s this. I stripped it, reupholstered the seat, and now it resides in my Medieval/William Morris styled living room.

The biggest expense ended up being the tapestry for the cushion, which I purchased at the Greater Pittsburgh Renaissance Faire.

Below is another roadside discovery, and one of my absolute favorites.

The chair was originally this cream shade, but a bit stained. So I repainted it, distressed it a little, and gave it a new seat cushion of vintage pink velvet. It now lives merrily in my guest room. How cute are those spindles?


Now these two chairs below were my most recent finds.



As you can see, I’m in the process of recushioning them from the weird cream burlap on the left to the vintage hunter green velvet upholstery fabric on the right. I’ll be giving these to a friend’s mom, who could use some replacement dining chairs for her well-worn set.

The funny story behind these chairs is they weren’t put out to trash the same week. The first week was the armchair. And then the next week before trash pickup, I looked out the window and… could it be?

It was. I lifted the chair, tucked it inside the house, went off to work, and no one was ever the wiser!

Okay, so you may be thinking, “Are chairs the only thing you can get from the side of the road?”

Why, no! In fact, many good pieces of furniture are put to the curb every day, in search of new homes. The reason my pictures here are so chair-centric is more related to my physical limitations, than curbside quality. It’s much easier to do the Stealth technique with a dining chair instead of, say, a seven-foot long buffet when you’re one gal trying desperately to be subtle.

Also, I have a compact car.

Oh-- and before I go-- one more pic!

This picture is courtesy of one of my friends, the current owner of the chair. This was a roadside find I reupholstered... and which adopted my friend as new owner because it went so well with her existing decor.

So one more roadside chair has found its place in the world! And it’s easy to feel good about curbside shopping when you can uncover treasures you love and can really use. In a society that’s becoming more and more disposable, I just like to think I’m helping do my part by turning potential landfill into a little luck.