The MR frequently questions my common sense when I show up with one of my pieces of “trashure”. He struggles to see their potential and pretty much can only see what they look like NOW, at face value. I’m a dreamer. I see what everything could be or maybe what it once was in its glory days! There is so much potential in each and every piece and the worse shape its in, often the better price I can get it for! 🙂
Here is a corner of my garage where I have several pieces of “trashure” yet to be transformed. The MR thinks this is the trash pile! 🙂 You’ll see all these pieces soon, looking much different!
So the day I came home with 2 bar chairs in the back of the SUV, looking like they originally did, I’m pretty sure The MR thought I’d officially lost it!
The vinyl seats were torn (some worse than this even), they were missing screws and bolts so the top part was almost completely disconnected from the legs. The tops of the seat backs were an MDF material made to resemble some sort of wood. What I saw were nice lines, metal backs and legs in a nice color and seats that could easily be recovered. I got them for a steal too!
After cleaning them carefully with hot soapy water, I got out my chalk paint! I started with a mix of Waverly chalk paint in Mineral, Ink and Truffle to get it looking like the above. I literally poured a little of each out on a paper plate and dipped my brush into a little of each before swiping it across the seat backs. This was not the eventual color I was looking to get but I wanted some darker tones underneath that I could expose when I sanded back the top color. Yes, I did tape off the metal. I had run out of painter’s tape so I used Scotch tape! 🙂 Necessity is indeed the mother of invention!
Next I coated them with Waverly chalk paint in Ivory. Just one good coat. I know you think there was no point to my previous step because I just covered it all up but you’re wrong. Stay with me!
See what happens when you sand it lightly with a very fine sandpaper? There is the original color I put on! Now I probably would have left it like this and just put some poly over it but the fabric I ended up putting on the seats had more yellow undertones making the tops look too white, believe it or not! No worries! This is chalk paint, after all.
I dry brushed some Waverly chalk paint in Cashew over the tops and called it good. This brought the tones into a complimentary color family with the seat fabric I chose. I replaced the missing bolts and screws so they were solid and finished the seat backs with 2 coats of Rustoleum Triple Thick Polyurethane in a satin finish which I applied with a soft cloth instead of a brush.
So, what do you think? Am I crazy? Perhaps but I think almost anything is worth saving. All it takes is some time, some chalk paint and some dreaming.
Enjoy!
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Love the transformation Tara!
Thanks so much, Sandy
Oh Tara, they turned out great! Beautiful! You’re so talented! I think I have one of those trashures too!
XO
Thanks, Jerri ?. I love doing stuff like this. Can you tell? ?
Love this!! Such an amazing transformation!! My favorite part…trashure! Totally using this in my regular vocabulary!
~Emily
Hahaha oh good! Glad you like it and yes, I think it’s the perfect word for most of the things I drag home ?
WOW Tara! I love the makeover of the bar stools. I have some similar and they need a new facelift also. You pushed me! Thank you for sharing. I love how they turned out.
I love someone’s trash. You made them look like a million dollars!
~Terrie
Thanks so much, Terrie! I can’t wait to see yours. I sure hope you’ll share them when you transform them!