TRASH TO TREASURE

Every year, my town has a clean-up day.  Each homeowner can haul all their unusually big trash to the curb for the city to pick up.  These are items that they otherwise would not be able to place in the regular trash cans during the year.  Each year, this is my family's adventure!  We cruise the town (population 2,500) to find items we think we can upcycle.  This year, my daughter and I went together.  We giggled so much as we found several items to redo.  There's just something about digging through other people's trash that gives you the giggles.  Maybe it's a twinge of fear that someone will catch us!  ...or maybe it's the thrill of finding something we think still has value.  ...or maybe it's the fact that there's no price tag on the items on public display.  At any rate, this year we had an absolute blast!

Being the procrastinator I am, I'm just now getting started on the hard part of one of my projects.  Here's what we found in June.  Isn't this loveseat and chair just lovely.  When we saw it, we immediately saw good bones.  Once we got them home, we realized the seat was in great shape too!  


The first task we completed was taking off all the dried-up plastic/wicker from the arms and the back.  Easy-peasy! 

Next, we needed to locate something to replace the backs of the chairs.  Well....it just so happened, the hubby just attended a local auction and purchased two huge wooden speakers for $1.  He purchased them for the wood.  He buys wooden objects cheap and then takes them apart to make bee hive boxes.  Well, these speakers had a strong mesh that worked perfectly for our chair backs.  With an electric drill, the hubby quickly applied the mesh by wrapping and screwing them into the metal frames.

We walked one block to the local Dollar General to buy a few cans of black paint....and a few hours later...walla!  We immediately liked the result of the black paint!  Even the mesh took the paint well! 

For a few weeks, we studied the arms and realized we needed something that looked similar to the plastic wicker.  ...but we didn't want plastic.  We wanted something strong that would hopefully last a little longer.  We looked high and low.  Pinterest didn't even have any real ideas of what we wanted to do on the arms.  However, Pinterest did have a few chairs with woven seats out of nylon rope. So, after much deliberation, we decided to buy some nylon rope.  We went with an 4mm craft cord made by Bonnie.  Since the chairs were black, we went with a black and white cord, hoping that would give us some flexibility with color for the cushions

Fast forward to November....  Okay, so a lot happened between July and November!  I fit it in when I can...don't judge me!

Anyway, on a lazy Saturday, I pulled my cord out of the closet and thought I would try out weaving the arms.  I had no idea what I was doing, but I thought long and hard about it every night before falling to sleep, so I kinda came up with what I wanted to do, but didn't really know if it would work.  It would definitely be a "test." 
What do you think?  I first applied long lines of cord parallel to the metal frame.  I looped them around the breaks provided about every two feet.  Then I took the rest of the cord and wove it through the original cords.  I couldn't fit the whole ball of cord through the spaces, so I had to cut shorter lengths to pull through.  Each time I added more cord, I just tied a triple knot and made sure it fell on the underside of the arm.
 
I'm still not finished with the project...for one thing, I ran out of cord.  Again, I had no idea how much cord I would need!  So, we'll be ordering more soon.  And then there was the matter of the cushions.  I priced cushions at JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby, but, since this was an upcycle, I thought they were too expensive.  For a nice 4" cushion, it would have cost me about $80.  So, I went to Facebook and asked my friends if they knew of a couch with removable cushions that anyone was trying to get rid of.  I knew I could cut them down and recover.  Low and behold, there was someone giving a couch and chair away!!!  I couldn't believe it and certainly didn't expect it!  ...and the awesome thing is the cushions fit the chair perfectly!  Now all I have to do is find some free fabric and we'll be good.  In the mean time, this works for me!

 
This project has been so much fun!  I still have to weave the loveseat and cover the cushions, but I just couldn't wait to share this project with you!  Maybe by Spring I'll have an update on the completed project!