Folding chair makeover

So as I’m gearing up for my ladies lunch, I’m going through my “to do” lists and trying to get stuff knocked off that I can do this far ahead of time.  One is “dust off folding chairs”.  And then I visualize the folding chairs I have & think while they are functional, they are really not very attractive.  So I start Googling DIY projects (which is always an invitation to disaster for me.)  I found this blog post.  I loved her results & thought this may be a project I could actually do!  The two padded chairs I have used to belong to my parents, so they are very, very old.  If I ruined them, no biggie.  Especially since I was thinking of replacing them anyway.

It only took me three trips to Jo-Ann (car problems in the parking lot the first time, second trip to get what I wasn’t able to get the first trip & the third trip was because I ran out of spray paint), two trips to Home Depot (first to get plastic drop cloth, staple gun & staples, second to get the correct staples for my staple gun) and a ruined manicure.

The first chair was a bit problematic, since I had a difficult time getting one of the screws out and even replacing the pads, since the chairs were so old.  But a bit of perseverance and hot glue solved the problem.  And when I’d run into problems, I would ask my mother (she’s one of my guardian angels) for help because this is exactly the type of project she would love to do.  I also realized that a staple gun in the hands of someone with my skills (?) is a scary thing.  Anyway, I did finally get the first one completed.  Having learned a few tricks from it, the second one went very quickly.

I was very pleased with the results because I think they will look nice at my next girly party.  I was also excited that this project turned out successfully, since so many of mine don’t.

As I was admiring my work, I noticed my newly made over folding chair was right next to a chair that had belonged to my grandmother.  So here’s a picture of the chair my mother made over (that had belonged to her mother ) and the chair that I made over (that had belonged to my mother.)  Ok, so her handiwork was a lot more complex than mine.  But I still found the coincidence funny & something my mother & I would have laughed at.