Second Hand Furniture can be GREAT for re-purposing!

For a few Saturdays, we have been spending most of our time cleaning out the garage. What a pain! We had to make decisions on which projects to keep and which ones to ditch. This makes me quite sad, but we have a large Halloween party every year, and part of it takes place in the garage. So, needless to say, we must de-clutter for the event.

Acquiring second hand furniture is one of my favorite activities. I gather the items from friends, yard sales, thrift stores, out of dumpsters, or even off the side of the road. Seeing a new vision in items definitely can be easy for me at times, and at others, the items sit in my garage screaming for my attention.

Among the pile of crap goodies were two chairs that looked like this:

I bought the second hand chairs at a yard sale awhile back, and I loved the design. I used two of the chairs for my dining table transformation, but I still had two others that were not in as good of shape. These two left-over chairs had holes in their basket weave area. I knew that I could possibly reupholster them somehow to cover up the misshapen basket weave, but my intentions have never materialized.

When I was pressured asked by the hubby to get rid of them, I instantly had to think of what I could do with them. I KNEW they could be made into something cool, and I was not willing to just throw them away.

In less than ten minutes, (with the help of my hubby and his saw) we had chopped the tops off to begin the transformation and to carry out my vision.

As soon as I ditched the idea of keeping them chairs, a new purpose came to me instantly! Re-purposing furniture is one of my favorite things! I decided they would be adorable, and CHEAP picture frames. We cut out the basket weave with a razor blade knife, and then Dan cut off the backs of the chairs. I then used a sander to get the remaining of the basket weave off the middle area.

It was a little challenging around the edges, but after changing to a lower grit sand paper, it came off like a charm.

Are you beginning to see my vision? This is what they looked like before I sprayed them black.

Of course I have ADORABLE kiddos to go in my new ADORABLE frames, so I sent the pictures over to Costco for printing. I bought two 12X18 prints, and my overall cost was less than $6.00.

I taped the prints onto the back of the frames.

 

I will be hanging these in my girls' bedroom as soon as I get some hardware, but I couldn't wait to show you how great these dining room chairs/now picture frames turned out!

 Aren't my girls the cutest!?! I think so, but I am a little biased. :)

Sometimes a little pressure actually helps my creativity. I guess I work best under pressure. Do you?