Goodwill Chairs Makeover {the beginning of my blog}

HEY! I AM GUEST POSTING AT TATERTOTS AND JELLO TODAY!!

COME SEE ME!

First of all, I want to remind you of my Amy Peters’ Studio giveaway that ends Thursday, the 24th, at midnight.
Amy is giving away a $75.00 Gift Certificate to her amazing online store.
Click on the picture to enter:

Secondly, I want to tell you about another great giveaway at Love of Family and Home.

I fell in love with this blog because it is written by a mother and daughter duo.

These ladies are precious!

I have been so impressed with their decorating skills, and now I am thrilled to announce they have their own Etsy Shop!

iusb_760x100.8184870

And to celebrate the opening of their Etsy shop, they are giving away one pillow of your choice from their shop!!!!!

Brown/Pink Pillow with 3 Flower RosetteWhite Pillow with Eyelet Fabric Stripe & Blue Flower Rosette

Sage Green Ruffle PillowPink Pillow with Frayed Ruffle and 3 Flower Rosette

So hop on over to their blog and enter by clicking HERE, and tell them I sent ya!

They are fairly new to blogging, so show them some bloggy love!

Now today, I thought it would be fun to show you where my blogging addiction interest began.  Since I have a lot more followers than I did back then, and I’m sure you haven’t had the free time to read back to my very first posts, I wanted to share with you the very first project I ever posted on my blog.  It is still one of my favorites!!!

Here it is…

My husband and I are creating a guest house above our garage. (To see our progess so far, click here and here.) We are almost finished, but it needs furniture. We are on a very tight budget, so I have been frequently visiting Goodwill hoping to find something I could re-do or restore.

I came upon two chairs a while back that I instantly fell in love with. I didn’t like the color, but they had great “bones”. I loved the design on the back, I loved the wood they were made of, and they were extremely sturdy and comfortable. Best of all, I got them both for $30.00!

Here’s the before.

March 2009 162

March 2009 165

At first, I was going to paint the material. Yes, I said paint! I learned about it from a post at One Woman’s Cottage Life. But then I realized you wouldn’t see the cool design on the back of the chair if I left it covered with the material. So I decided to remove the material on the back.

March 2009 150

I also removed the seat by simply unscrewing it on the bottom. I wanted to cover the seat with new material.

March 2009 149

Then I had the fun task of removing one thousand staples! I’m serious, it seemed like a thousand! So I enlisted some help…

March 2009 151

That’s my oldest son, Jonathan. He’s almost 10, and he is a work horse. He loves helping me and his dad with all of our projects. Luke and Adam also helped, but I forgot to snap a pic.

The next day, I had blisters on the palms of my hands from all the staples we removed. No pain, no gain, right?

This is only half of the staples…

March 2009 153

Then I spray painted the chairs black, and they started looking much better.

March 2009 160

Then I bought some off white material to cover the seats.

I love using a staple gun. Covering a seat is so easy. Just be sure to pull the material real taunt before you staple. And if you mess up, you can easily pull the staple out and start over. (I know that from lots of experience!)

chairs 013

chairs 014

I just folded the corners over like so, nothing fancy.

chairs 016


Then I just re-attached the seats with a screwdriver, and I was finished!

chairs 019

What-a-ya think? I pulled the pillow off my bed to show you what it would look like with a pillow on it. I haven’t found the pillows I want just yet. I may buy them, or find some material I like and make them. I also thought a monogrammed pillow would look good.

chairs 020

Here’s a picture of the backs of the chairs.

chairs 021

I paid $30.00 for the chairs, $2.00 for a can of spray paint, and $6.00 for the material. Not bad for $38.00!

And they fit perfectly into my cottage style guest house.

Well, I hope you like my transformation! (By the way, I got the rug they are sitting on at Goodwill too…only $25.00!)

****************************************

Wasn’t that fun?!  I love having all my little projects documented on  my blog.

Now these chairs sit around my guest house table…


guest house

Thanks for joining me in my little blast from the past!

Have a blessed day!

24 Comments

  1. Oh I am so glad you posted (or re-posted) this project. What a great Goodwill find. You have made those chairs look AMAZING! Love it!
    I love all the inspiration I find from bloggers like you. I hope to add some things like that to my blog this year. I love your blog and look forward to reading more : )
    Have a wonderful day,
    Jenn

  2. What excellent inspiration! The finished chairs are gorgeous, I love the detail of the back and the white cushions. Can you tell us what you spent on this project?

  3. Love your GW chair makeover! They look great at your kitchen table! Love that you have a guest house above your garage! How cool is that! Another whole new space for decorating! Thank you again for the shout out about our etsy shop & our giveaway!! So, so, so much appreciated!! Love ya girl!!

  4. Awesome job. I love the back on the chairs. I agree with you, I would not have wanted to have put anything on the back of them. And the price was not bad either.

  5. those chairs turned out great! I am new to your blog- and indeed a women after your heart, I love to redo and thrift1 Your blog and site are so fresh and inviting!

  6. Traci, what vision you had…I love how these chairs came out. Thanks for showing us how you transformed them. Your sons sound so wonderful. Look at that sweet, bright face helping you…Jonathan is truly a treasure. What a fine young man pitching in to help his Mom.
    I’m going to be hitting the thrift stores for the other pieces I’d like to incorporate into my office…that is once I get done with the walls…the never ending job. LOL

  7. Again…just beautiful! BTW, we have something in common…I have four boys too. Mine range in age from 21 to 28. I really wanted a little girl, but having boys was a wonderful experience for me. You’ll never regret staying home with your kids. It’s all so worth it!!

  8. Your blog is fantastic. These chairs look great! I have never been thrifty or crafty before, but this inspires me. I need to give it a shot! :)

  9. Saw you on Tater Tots and Jello. LOVE the blog! Can’t wait to read more. Thanks for sharing your amzing talents!

    ~Jess @ makingoverthemartins.blogspot.com

  10. I found you from Tatertots and Jello. I love your blog! So inspirational to a newbie like me!!! Come visit me if you have a minute….

    Now following you!!

    SageandCocoa.blogspot.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *