50'S FOLDING CHAIR REDO & AGED PILLOWS- RACING ROOM REDO'S #4&5

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

This is racing room redo #4 & #5(at the end),
but technically the 3rd in the typewriter cart/desk redo.

I had intended to paint the chairs
and
reupholster with the checkered flag material left over from my son's 9th birthday party.


After taking them apart,
 fell in love with the little hidden treasures underneath!

Redo #4

BEFORE/AFTER

They had some great wear, rust & industrial-ness to them!

We had purchased these chairs MANY, MANY,  years ago from a thrift store.
We got 6 and loved how easily they stored when not in use.
The seat lifts up and the legs fold in to each other!

One of the chairs was already torn

and covered with a simple throw pillow.

I was going to use the pillow stuffing to pad the chairs and

then cover.

Thank goodness I didn't have to.

I love the new look.

 L. I unscrewed all the attachments

T.R. took it all apart(2 metal layers to chairs).

B.R. I then removed all the padding and cover.

I instantly saw the rust!

Why mess with it, when that's the look I was going for.

L. Before

R. I spray painted the areas where you would naturally wear out

(back-center, bottom legs & back foot rest)

with the copper color I used for the desk.

I SO thought I was done!

After putting it all together,

realized there was a gap between the 2 layers of the chair 

where the padding & cover had been.

I couldn't just leave it like that because I feared my kiddos would get a finger or leg stuck.

They would need different screws/bolts with the nuts to keep layers tight.

The screws hubby had weren't the right size,

he didn't have any nuts

and had to purchase some.

THEN I got those wrong too and instead of returning......

asked hubby to drill larger holes :/

Thanks hubby!

AFTER: left chair

Right chair

Close up

COST: 

paint- previous project $0

nuts/bolts $2.36+tx

Redo #5

Ok, so I still wanted to use the checkered flag material

but now I'd have to use it in a different way.

Although the chairs look great,

they still needed some kind of padding.

So back pillows is what I was going to make.

 Because I was going for the aged/weathered look

I boiled some water and mixed in about 1/2 cup of instant coffee.

I then put the fabric in and let it sit for an hour.

This is what I got. 

MUCH BETTER!

I then grabbed the old throw pillow for its stuffing.

Great way to reuse!

I realized in the middle of making the forms that they still looked too new.

So I made sure to flip the correct side and sew,

so that the underside/inside out would be the actual look I got.

It's a little hard to tell but the top finished one is the inside out version

(black isn't as prominent),

while the bottom is still much newer in appearance.

One more time!