Double Back Flip Into the Dumpster

This would be my first experience with dumpster diving.  I picked up 2 chairs from someone's trash pile with hopes that I could give them some lovin' and also satisfy my need to make things.  I've never refinished furniture before, but considering these were free, I didn't think it'd be a huge loss if I screwed them up.

The chairs look like they had a rough time in their last home.  The cushions were stained and dusty and the wood had been colored on and scraped up.

So I borrowed my dad's sander and went to town.  Not hard to do but even with a sander it was still time consuming.  Just to give you an idea of how long it was taking, my boyfriend had time to mow his 1 acre lot on a riding lawn mower while I worked on 1 chair.  And even then he finished up before me and helped me with sanding.  By that point my fingers were numb and felt like they were vibrating like little springs, so I was ever so grateful to him.  I'd say that in about 3 hours I was able to strip the chair, paint it, clean up and take some breaks to play with the chickens too.

This is T-Rex Chicken telling me to get back to work.  So I did.  On to painting!

The first chair I painted grey because I love grey.  The second chair is going to be marigold.  I picked out some fabric to compliment the grey and marigold paint, but if I had to do it again, I'd pick out the fabric first and then get the complimentary paint colors.  It's difficult to match the limited fabric choices to the paint, and much easier to match paint.

Also, I HATED the upholstery fabric.  Yuck!  It all looks old-ladyish.  So I found some cute fabric that wasn't upholstery fabric and I'm going to attach 2 layers of fusible interfacing (iron on) to make it stronger.  I don't anticipate the chairs getting much use (they're mostly for decorative use) so I'm not too worried about the fabric getting worn out.

My latest hangup is that I don't have a staple gun.  The Chick Daddy and I are going to order one online tonight and I anticipate it's quick arrival (love Amazon Prime!) so that I can finish up this project by this weekend.

Incidentally, the Chick Daddy asked me tonight why I like making things.  And I answered that it's because I have something to show for my work.  Something that I created or altered or edited that I can look at and see the work I put into it.  I'm excited about these chairs.  And I'm equally excited to show them off

And here they are all finished!  I really like the way they turned out, but especially the yellow one.  I was a little worried about my paint color choice after I painted it, but I think it's the cuter of the two.