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This past weekend I finally stirred from my languid summer stupor and was hella productive. Floors were swept, linens were changed, cakes were baked and most fun of all – dumpster chairs were painted!
Okay technically this pair (yeah that’s right, there’s two of these pretty little ladies) didn’t come from the dumpsters. But seeing as they’d been living in the laundry room of my building for the last eight months I took them to be properly identified orphans and snatched them for my very own.
Isn’t she pretty? Isn’t she grand?
Especially when you see where she started out:
There wasn’t much wrong with the red paint – but fire engine ain’t really my shade of lipstick. Plus that torn turquoise vinyl seat cover had to go….
Fortunately the seat was sitting in the frame and easily popped right out. And upon removal of the turquoise vinyl I discovered an interesting faux leather vinyl. Hmmmm….close but not quite what I’m looking for. Plus I found black spots on the wood seat base and since I don’t fancy even the possibility of mold I was forced to chuck the whole seat.
But Becky! you cry. Why would you throw out the seat without taking a template and saving yourself precious hours minutes measuring, calculating and creating a new one???
Hahaha! You underestimate me. I only got half way to the dumpsters downstairs before I had the same brain wave and turned around. I traced the seat onto some craft paper, which is how it was relatively easy to create two new seats out of 3/8″ plywood.
With the templates cut out I took care to sand them down and round all the edges. After all one must protect the sensitive posteriors of one’s guests. I’m such a thoughtful hostess to be so mindful of my friend’s butts.
After seeing how pretty the raw wood looked I was briefly tempted to leave it alone and call the ballgame. But I had one last step in mind…
Aqua paint!
Recognizing what I liked the most about the raw wood was the grain I decided to try a little faux paint treatment. I coated the wood with one thin layer of aqua paint (Cool Breeze by Benjamin Moore). After it dried I took a rough grit sandpaper and rubbed away until the grain was revealed.
And there you go – a facelift worthy of Cher I think. Or maybe Sharon Stone. You can’t tell me that woman hasn’t had work done and yet she still looks fierce and not frightening.
But I digress…
It’s time for my favourite part of any dumpster makeover project – the before and after!
When I look at these lovely ladies I picture them paired with a glass-topped bistro table. Glass, well because we’d wanna maintain visual access to that lovely grain detail, wouldn’t we?
And also – seeing the fresh pop of yellow and aqua puts me in the mind of an old time ice cream parlor. Which naturally begs the question: Who wants ice cream?
Haha! That was a trick question! The correct answer is always: YES! NOW! HURRY!
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