Just look at this cute little chair! Aint she purty?
She wasn't always. A year ago I bought her on TradeMe, a shabby little scratched Antique for $20. Didn't realise she was a mini-chair but loved her anyway and gave her a lick of white paint. She scrubbed up well.
Then somebody stood on her. Should have known an antique chair in a kids room was a bad idea....
And that's how she's been for a while until yesterday when I was hibernating and looking for something satisfying to do. I walked past my daughter's room and saw the wreck of it. Her many-times-rearranged once-magazine-pretty room that I spent months DIY-ing last year.
The room called to me, "Fix us! Make us pretty again!"
So I got stuck in moving furniture, sorting clothes, re-hanging pictures... and then stopped when I saw the broken chair, thinking... a cake board in my cupboard that might be just the right size... that pretty fabric from the Fancy Nancy Party... borrow some stuffing from a cushion... some drawing pins...
I reckon I can fix this!
Look at that! Could the cake board be any more of a perfect fit?? Tee Hee. It's just sitting there, not glued down, not nailed in. Just wait and see how easy this is!
Unzip a cushion and pull out some stuffing. A few handfuls will do (and no-one will ever miss it). Doesn't that fabric look pretty? It's velvety soft. And so *ahem* cheap.
Now this is the clever part. I had intended to use push-pins to pull the fabric taut and secure it to the base. Problem was the base was made of such hard wood, it bent all my pins and none of them went in. So I simply tied the opposite corners of the fabric together; knotted them tight... and voila! That base is not going anywhere. And it looks good too, right?
I rearranged the furniture, creating a little reading/chillout space.
Miss Fab walked in and squealed; hugged me and did a little happy dance... She loves it.
But wait there's more. You see, also resident in this room was a budget plastic-covered folding chair I bought for her desk after I discovered the "pretty Bentwood one" was miniature. And now it doesn't match. What to do???
Why, inspect the back of it and see if it has screws of course! It does?? Great! Grab your Philips head and lets give this baby a makeover too....
The back rest is a little tricky. But that's OK. All we need is a standard stapler and a heavy hand to thump those staples in....
Ahhh matchy matchy! DIY makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. I leave the door open and walk past often.
Satisfying, that's what it is. Great medicine on a day when you'd been feeling a little low.
Thanks everybody, for your kind words yesterday. I am feeling much better after some peace'n'quiet and a bit of regenerating DIY. ♥
