A week or two ago one of my neighboring towns, White Bear Lake, hosted a Trash to Treasure Saturday. They encouraged home owners to put anything they wanted to give away at the curb with a ‘free’ sign on it. Then people were invited to drive around and load it up!
Well, you didn’t have to ask me and my friend Sue twice! We were on it. And we brought home a nice little haul of free stuff.
This is what I got; two faux bamboo folding chairs with cane back seats, a gutted sewing machine table, a gutted radio cabinet with no legs, a tacky metal french flower bucket and a pair of vintage yellow Samsonites. Total cash outlay = $0.
I’ve already given makeovers to the chairs. But first, here is where we picked them up.
Not terribly promising from a distance. We almost drove right on by. But the chairs caught my eye. I grabbed two of them and was leaving the other two. One was totally trashed and the other had some damage to the cane. In the end Sue grabbed that one though, planning to do something about the cane. I think it goes without saying that we passed on the old TV, plastic high chair and bad patio cushion.
Once I got the chairs home, the biggest task was removing the seriously tacky yellow vinyl from the seats.
I’ve never seen so many staples! I still have the blister I got pulling all of those out. Next came a paint job. I’ll admit I began with a brush and some Fusion paint, but in the end I threw in the towel and brought out the spray paint. It was just too putzy to paint all of those spindles with a brush.
As for the seats, I cut some drop cloth fabric to fit and then painted on a faux grain sack stripe.
This was made much easier by my newest find, super skinny tape! I’d been looking for such a thing for a while and I finally found it at Menards (a local DIY store).
It’s made by Painter’s Mate and is .23″ wide. Perfect for a faux grain sack stripe!
Aren’t these chairs a great combo of faux bamboo and cane?
And yes, you read that right earlier, these are folding chairs. Stakmore, “the folding furniture with the permanent look.”
I think they turned out smashing. You could use them at a small dining table for two, at a desk, or even just keep them on hand as extra seating at parties.
They really aren’t trashy anymore!
I am selling these for $30 each if anyone is interested.
q is for quandie 
Where do I start? LOVE that the town named it Trash to Treasure Day! You KNOW I love a good grain sack stripe. But really what I love most is the tip about the skinny tape! I must find that in New Jersey! Thank you!
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Ha! I do know how much you love a good grain sack stripe! And you’ll love that skinny tape. Hope you can find it in Jersey!
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Wow, if I lived closer I would buy those chairs. the transformation is totally amazing.
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Thanks Cindy! Hopefully someone nearby feels the same way 😉
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Boy did those chairs turn out fantastic! What a great find, for starters, and the grainsack seat just puts it over the edge. You sure rocked this one!
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Thanks Anya! I love taking something from trashy to fabulous.
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You can’t even tell they are a folding chair when they are set up. They turned out really nice.
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Yeah, that is the cool thing about them. Stylish temporary seating. I’m almost tempted to keep them on hand for future entertaining!
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I wish we had a local trash to treasure day-your chairs look FAB!
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Maybe you should suggest it to your local town governments! Call City Hall!
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That tape is a great find for stripes! Such unique chairs that now have a second chance. What kind of paint do you use on fabric? Thanks!
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I just used acrylic craft paint on these (you know, the stuff that comes in the little bottle at Michael’s or Hobby Lobby). I used a stencil brush and pounced the paint on rather than using strokes and a regular brush. That helped work the paint into the fabric. I wasn’t going for full coverage, I wanted a sort of aged/distressed look.
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Wow, I will never make fun of “trash to treasure” day again. I was just jealous I wasn’t able to go with you & Sue that day!! I’m really thinking you should keep those chairs Linda! Stackmore, who would have thunk it??! The folding concept on a permanent looking chair is the bomb. Fab job Linda!!
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They would make great extra seating for ‘build your own martini’ parties!
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Great Job!
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