Thursday, March 17, 2011

Past...Crafts(?)

I don't know that this really qualifies as a craft - more of a junky remake (which is what I TRULY love doing).

My future daughter-in-law is a glamour technician (beautician, hair stylist, cosmetologist, whatever you call them these days).  And on her days off, she cuts the hair of her friends and family for free!!!  Yes, I get free, fabulous haircuts for the rest of my life (or the duration of her relationship with my son).  Feel free to be jealous.

My sister found her this chair at a thrift store.  Its original life was as a drafting chair I assume, otherwise, why would you ever need an office chair to extend to 3 feet high???  But it had definitely seen better days.  A little dingy, a little rusty, a little sad in general.



And it was useful, if homely.  So I thought as a gift to her (after my first faboo FREE haircut) I'd re-do her little salon chair.  I talked it over with her and she decided on a black and white theme.  I took a trip to my local Hancock Fabric and wandered around with my camera and took pictures of EVERY SINGLE black and white fabric in the store.  This was the one she chose:



Luckily it was a nice, strong, thick fabric so it would stand up well to a reupholster job.

On a nice day off, I disassembled the chair, cleaned it up and gave it a fresh paint job with Krylon Fusion paint (specially designed for plastic).  The padding was still in good shape, so I ripped off the old polyester tweed fabric, and stapled the new fabric in place.  Re-assembly was a bit of a challenge, as I had a few more staples in the back than were originally there, but some strong hands (in the form of my son) and it went back together.

Here's the finished product.  (Once again, forgive my pathetic photography skills.)




She loves it, and it still looks great - even through repeated use.  (And she hasn't gotten any hair color stains on it yet - keep your fingers crossed!)

5 comments:

  1. Hey, now that is really COOL! Nice job. New follower from Ambers blog. TFS
    Kathlee
    http://kathleessnippitsncricuts.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just wanted you to know I'm your newest follower!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love this..Wish I knew how to how to do chairs like that. I'm your newest follower came over from Ambers blog.. Would love it if you decided to follow my blog.
    Minta

    http://mintascreations.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Such a stylish chair! Great work!

    ReplyDelete
  5. And it only cost like $5. Or maybe it was $4. Either way it was dead cheap!

    ReplyDelete