Monday, July 23, 2012

Old Chair - Great Planter

Last week I wrote about my picking slump and how I finally found some good sales, well this is one of my little gems.  When I first found this chair it was in pretty rough shape.  I toyed with the idea of restoring it as a chair (OK, only for a few minutes),
but it was really too far gone.  It originally was a rocker but had long ago lost its base and was really wobbly.  I would also have to replace its springs and reupholster it.  Too much time and money for something I want to re-sale.  So I told my husband what I had in mind and he kind of took over.  Note; when I first started bringing projects home for me to play with he would invariably take over and I would have to find something else to do.  Oh well, I love working with him in the shop and I really couldn't have done this one on my own.
First off he re-glued the base, everything else was pretty good.  Then I removed the leather on the back.  Meanwhile he made a seat out of a plank of cedar his brother had cut with his one man saw mill that was too thin to use as a regular board.  How cool is that to have your own saw mill?  Actually this isn't the first one in the family, my father-in-law had both a full size saw mill and a smaller one man one.  I even pulled green chain and stacked wood years ago on the big mill.  Sorry, back to the chair.  So after many measurements, cuts and gluing he had the board for the seat with the perfect hole for the planter I wanted to use.  Now to the fun part.  We had painted some of our outdoor furniture a few weeks ago in Spanish Red by Glidden and I knew I wanted this chair in that shade, just not with such a solid finish.  I diluted the paint with water to a 50/50 ratio, then white washed the chair with this mixture.  It really worked well and went really fast.  Next we planted it with some saplings my husband dug up, some moss that I pulled off some trees, a few pine cones and a couple of weeds.  I love how this turned out.

I plan on selling it at the upcoming   Junk Salvation August 4th at the fairgrounds.  I am so excited to be a part of this show.  My nephew, sister and her husband will have a space and invited me as well.  My sister and I will be working it, how fun!

2 comments:

  1. I love it as a planter. GREAT SAVE.
    Now following you from PICKINandPAINTIN.blogspot.com. Please come visit me and say HI.
    THANKS.

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  2. This is so adorable! What a great idea for a cheap DIY project. Goodwill here I come! :)

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