Thursday 14 February 2013

Desk & Chair Project for $25!

I love to up-cycle and refinish old pieces of furniture and give them a whole new lease on life! It's truly amazing what a difference a splash of paint can make.

My eldest daughter is at school and has reached the age where she is incessantly doing craft, writing on several thousand pieces of paper and basically just "creating masterpieces"!

Due to this love of hers, we decided it was probably time that she had her own little desk and chair in her bedroom. Of course I could have gone out and bought her a new desk and chair but that would have been too easy and not creative enough for me! So instead, I decided we'd find something old that no-one wanted and breathe new life into it.

When driving along in our local area some time ago I found an old 1920's dresser on the side of the road. I pulled over so I could ask the lady how much she wanted for it. To my surprise it was in very good condition and she was giving it away for FREE! My poor long suffering husband then had to help me get it in the back of our car & it sat in our garage for a number of months, annoying him I'm sure.

Fast forward to two weeks ago and I was again driving along and saw our local op shop had several different little chairs out the front. I pulled over and discovered a poor little old chair that was in good condition, but had it's ugly on in a big way! It had great bones though and was only $20...bargain! I then set to work on creating a pretty little set for my daughter's room. Pictures below...


This is clearly the desk "before" shot. She wasn't very pretty but as I said she was in good condition and had potential.


And here is the chair before it's make over. Again, not pretty but I liked the design of the back and hey for $20 you can't complain.

And here is the end result!
 
A bit of a change isn't it! She loves the light blue desk, soft green and pops of colour from the fabric.

It is always best to choose your fabric first and then pull a colour from the fabric to use as your paint colour. 

The good news is that because I had the primer, paint & the fabric from another job this whole thing only cost me $20 for the chair and a few dollars for some sand paper. 

Have you ever taken and old piece of furniture and updated it?