Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Upcycling - not to everyone's taste.

I rescued 3 dining chairs from my sister's garden last week. As I have mentioned before she is at the end of a huge remodeling of her house and, me being always on the look out am profiting. Her old oven is already in my house and now I took the three dining chairs that she was about to put on the tip.

They were in a bit of a state, it has to be said. Having brought up 3 children on these chairs they were covered in grubby fingers, crayon and paint and thick with dirt having been out in the garden for a few weeks. I just call that a challenge.

So first thing was to clean and sand them down, no easy task actually because the dirt was matted on. Here is one after the cleaning and sanding (forgot to take a picture before this process)



A traditional looking chair, it wasn't a very nice colour pine varnish finish so I wasn't keeping that.

Next I primed them with a tin of primer I had leftover from a previous project.


Now comes the part when I go off the main track. My intention was to just paint the cream to match the legs of the table, but sometimes, when I get looking at paint colours a strange feeling comes over me and I start wanting to experiment. Not always succesfully. I have a lot of blue and white crockery and love this combination and started wondering about maybe painting them blue. After humming and haaing I thought, what's the worst that can happen? I don't like them and paint them again.

So Swedish Blue was decided upon. Decide for yourself. I'm not sure about the result, but it is growing on me, haha.


Still, a big improvement from a filthy old chair in the garden. I will liven them up with some nice pastel shade cushions and maybe get something blue onto the table to tie them in. If I am fed up with them in 6 months I will paint them a new colour.


22 comments:

  1. I think they look nice! I just found two more water cans at an auction now I need to run across two more old metal tractor seats for my kitchen (I have three already finished) they are the perfect height for my kitchen island :)

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  2. I like them! You have the same chairs as me, I pinched them from my Mum when she was having a haul, they were pine too. I cleaned and sanded them and sprayed paint them - one red one grey to go with my Morroccan look kitchen - they look fab!

    http://parentingachildwithasd.blogspot.co.uk/

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  3. I LOVE them!!! And hurray for you rescuing them and giving them new life instead of trashing them! They really are lovely! ♥♥♥ Cheerful~

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  4. They look brilliant, nice and cheerful and fresh, and I love your table!!

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  5. I think you were right to go by instinct, now they stand out against the white part of the table. Maybe something (tablecloth, table sets ?) to put on the wooden part of the table that is a bit overpowering (my opinion). Congrats on such a good job !

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  6. I love this colour so I am biased in saying they look fabulous. Maybe something in that shade or similar on the wall would tie it in, maybe a shelf or two painted the same colour?

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  7. If you have the crockery as you say, wow.

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  8. Maybe a table runner in blue rather than a full table cloth. Time for a new skill ~ a quilted runner??

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  9. should have said I love the chairs, but then I am very blue biased

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  10. Be careful - your sister will want them back now! They look fantastic.
    Love from Mum
    xx

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  11. Looking good. We painted similar chairs but my did they take forever to dry. Our bottoms kept sticking to them for weeks!

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  12. I think they look fab, who would have thought that they had been stood out in the garden for a while? I painted our dining chairs last year and if I change the colour scheme in the kitchen I will paint them again!!

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  13. They are very nice chairs. Are you going to make some seat pads to make them soft to sit on?

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  14. I'll be right over! LOL! I love the color it's very fresh and inviting.

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  15. i love the colour, i have got an old chair from my friend, ive primed it but now im stuck on what paint to use, can you tell me please did you use gloss? or wat it mat or silk, thanks for advice, im new about 4 months on your blog and i love it, Ruth

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  16. Fabulous transformation! I love the look of those chairs with your table. It fits very well with the suroundings!! Well done!!!

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  17. I think they look groovy!

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  18. They look great - I love that colour :)

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  19. Love them!if it's Blue i'm in love!

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