Sunday, August 28, 2011

$5

Recently while I was out jogging with the kiddos I spotted this cute little 60's style dining room set....
I went by on my last lap and was all ready to knock on the door but there was a gentleman in the driveway :)  I took that as a "sign"!!!!
Anyways I asked him what was going on with the furniture and he said they'd had it in a yard sale and no one wanted it....he asked if I wanted it.  So I offered to pay him for it and asked how much he wanted...."oh I don't know...$5????"  A table and 4 chairs.  $5...
Then I started pulling staples and kept pulling....and pulling and pulling...
Originally I was going to recover the chairs so I left the webbing and went ahead and painted.  I loved the shape of the chairs...and had a fun paint color in mind for them.
It's kind of a mustard yellow but it's got more green to it than the photos really show....it's called "Gecko" 
Then I was thinking about what to use to cover them with and I remembered something my husband and I had seen...
This seat is in a hot rod ---a car that was completely built by hand and is a real work of art.
Anyways I decided to go back and pull the rest of the staples and get rid of all the upholstery so we could weave some leather seats....
we bought a 3-5 oz 1/2 hide of tooling leather
After alot of measuring and remeasuring we finally laid out all our strips on the back of the hide and cut them out.  (They were 3" wide and we needed 36 strips)
Then each was hand rubbed with the dye and sprayed with a sealer.
Next came the fun part :) finishing up the chairs...
My husband drilled pilot holes, screwed the strips in while weaving the strips....
And now these
Look like this....
 My husband actually said "Wifey, this might be the best idea you've ever had..."
 I'd say I've had a few better ;) but that's high praise coming from my perfectionist husband---
 Doodlebug---STILL celebrating his birthday:) Notice the one shoe on one shoe off...
 two finished, a third almost finished and one to go!
I'm still trying to decide how to do the table.  I'm leaning towards staining the whole thing but we have the dark wood flooring so I thought about painting only the bottom and refinishing the top...but we'll see....




8 comments:

  1. Awesome!! You two never cease to amaze me! That will look great in your kitchen.

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  2. They look great!!! I love the leather!

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  3. Great idea! The leather and the stain on it looks amazing. And the yellow color is so fun! I hope I randomly run by a $5 table and chairs one day...but since I don't jog outdoors, it's less than likely to happen :).

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  4. Great story of the $5 find(s)!

    Never hurts to ask, besides, as my Mamma would say "Don't ask, don't get". No time to be shy!

    Visiting from MMS Linky Party tonight,
    `Suzanne in NW Illinois

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  5. so where did you get the leather?? love what you did that sports car is amazing what a great inspiration

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  6. I can't get over the $5 dollar price tag! The leather idea is so unique. They turned out great.

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  7. you rock'd on this one....and yeap paint legs and stain top perfect..I did this once not easy...I put on the first coat of stain...let it realllly dry..then green tape and did a basket weave then had to exacto knife the tape so it would look like basket weave..this was only a small table...and square..I hit it with a darker stain and used a more dry brush effect...again let it dry dry dry....took of the tape and I had a table that looked woven in the wood grain....kinda cool but I said never again the cutting to get the effect was a pain...

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