Makeover #4 - Goodwill director's chairs

On a recent Goodwill trip, while I was really looking for another small desk chair, I came across two director's chairs for $15/ea.  They were in great shape, just had some chipping paint and dirty fabric.  So with my two BFF's - paint and fabric - they went from this

to this

I was pleased to see, as I was taking the fabric off, that they are from Pier 1.  I looked up the retail online and they sell for $50 for the chair and $15 for the fabric parts.  So I got both chairs, with much cuter fabric then they offer, for less than the price of one @ retail.  I used outdoor fabric from Joann's when it was 50% off so the fabric for each chair was less than $10.

I think they will look very cute out front of this cottage

or this one

First official completed makeover

Well almost completed - close enough.  I didn't finish the hem, and I have 2 of these to do, but they'll look identical so for the purposes of sharing here, it's a completion :)

Before Chairs

And after!  Remember, it's not hemmed yet.

The fabric that looks sort of bunched on either side of the bottom is a pleat.  They'll look neater once ironed and hemmed.

The back, with the almost invisible zipper

It's not the most perfect fit in the world but it's defintely good enough. 

Here are a few "action shots" of the process.

10 yards of fabric - almost 2 too many but the lady at the fabric store convinced me I would need 10.  She was wrong.

Laying out the cushion

Laying out the chair pieces.  The fabric is folded over to cut both at once.  The fabric to the right is all leftover x2.

It was pretty easy to put together.  It took a few minutes here and there to figure out how to piece it together but the only problem I had was in the beginning with the first cushion.  The chairs were in the garage and I wrongly assumed that the zipper was on the straight part when it was actually on the curve.  I lost about 20 minutes unstitching and re-sewing but it was easily fixed.

So happy this was so doable.  I seriously thought this might take me like a week, but it only took about 4 hours total so far.  The 2nd one will come together even faster.

Oh and just a note about this fabric.  I came across it ages ago, way before we had even heard of Matlacha, but had no reason to buy any even though I loved it and knew it was totally "me".  I found it again right about the time I was planning to decorate the first cottage in the gray/yellow/turquoise color scheme.  I kind of purposely didn't show it to Chris in case he wanted to try to veto it.  I had planned to order it eventually but found it at a local fabric store that had 40% off everything this past weekend.  Since I bought TEN yards of it, it was a pretty big committment.  I showed it to Chris, bracing myself for his potential dislike, but also knowing he would pretty much be SOL

if he didn't like it :) 

Fortunately for both of us, he likes it.

Weekend update - new furniture acquisitions

Just when I thought our garage couldn't hold any more stuff.....we crammed a few more things in there this weekend.

Here's a view from inside.

And here is what it looked like just a month or so ago....before I lost my sanity :)

Then there was this.....

Oy.  I am so having to repress my OCD lately.

So - onto what's new. 

I had bought an almost new Ikea Tullsta chairs from a Craigslist seller a few weeks ago for $60.  These chairs are $99 new, plus tax, plus the hassle of driving to the Ikea....not to mention how long must take to make a purchase in that bloated warehouse on steroids (I've only been once just to scope it out.  Didn't buy anything, but almost got stuck there since there appeared to be no way out unless you were going through the checkout).  So I'd been checking Craigslist for more Ikea chairs and found 2 more for sale along w/ a cover.  And she delivered.  So I got 2 more chairs and a cover delivered for less than it would have cost for one chair and the cover, new.  I only planned to cut the cover apart for a pattern to make new covers, so a used one was perfect.  These two chairs are not exactly the same as the one I had bought but a. they are way more comfortable, and b. they all look the same once the covers are on anyway.

I'll post tomorrow (hopefully) with the finished chair covers.  I have made the cushion part and cut out the chair part, I just need to buy zippers and put them together.  They are going to look SOOOOO awesome and I am in love w/ the fabric.  Here's a preview.

More on these tomorrow or Wed.

Saturday the neighborhood next to ours had their community garage sale.  I got on my bike and checked out most of the sales.  Not too much good stuff but I did find a mirror that matches the yellow dresser from a few weeks ago (sans any extra panties, thank goodness).  Five bucks!  Sweet.

Then found this high top table w/ a Carribbean map on top.  It came w/ 2 stools and they had a $50 price tag on it, which was cheap enough in my book,  But as i was standing there looking at it and waiting for Chris to show up to check it out, the guy told me they were negotiable on the price.  So we offered them $40.  Not sure where we'll use it but I see it coming in handy somewhere.  Will probably paint the base of it and the stools a light aqua or yellow to complement the map.

Oh and here is our free TV stand, courtesy of my co-worker, the same one who is donating our dining room table and chairs.  If I were going for the really rustic beach look I'd leave it as is, but I think most everything else will be a bit more polished, so I'll throw a layer of paint on it. 

I'll post the total furniture expenditure update in another post.