Educator's Soliloquy: spray paint

Today I completed several projects I've had in the works for the past couple weeks. It was a sunny day, cold but beautiful and reminiscent of spring, so of course it was a productive day. Being in the Pacific Northwest, we don't get to see the sun too frequently, so it is lovely when it decides to appear -- especially if it appears on a weekend in February!

My first project of the day, started two weeks ago, was to complete a chair re-do. I bought this chair at Good Will for $3:

It was only $3 because the joints on one side were terrible.

I sent a picture to Honey to say "If I get this, will you teach me how to fix this?" Now I know a new skill: fixing chair joints. Very handy! Now where can I find more cut-but-broken chairs?

To start the chair redo, I had to unscrew the seat so that I could see the problem (and so I could recover the stained mess).

Bunny thought she would help Mommy work on the strange-smelling new toy.

As I removed each piece, I labeled it so that I would remember where each piece was located.

Although all the corner pieces look the same, with old chairs things are usually just slightly off and so labeling makes the "let's put it all back together" stage a bit easier.

After taking the chair apart I decided to do the easy part first. I bought a foam cushion at Joann's using a coupon, which made the cushion under $4. The material I already had leftover from a project for a grandmother -- it's not my style or my favorite, but I wanted to make the chair work for under $10. I put the seat on the cushion & cut off the excess, and then I stretched the fabric tight and stapled it to the wooden seat.

Then came the tricky part. Honey had to show me how to remove the old, broken pegs, which sometimes involved drilling them out of the original hole.

We then glued new pegs and inserted them in the holes only to find out that the standard pegs nowadays are too large for the holes in this old chair. We cut the pegs to size using a handsaw (and then later on a jigsaw because doing things by hand was taking too long).

What a mess!

When gluing the pegs we discovered that one of the original holes on one side of the chair was a big too big, so we used scraps and filled in the gaps and set everything with glue.

Cloth clamps and a ratchet held the frame together as it dried for about a week -- I wanted to make sure it was solid.

Time to spray paint! I chose a bright blue and bright green to match the material on the seat cover. The green was a Rust-Oleum and the blue a Valspar, so this was a good time to compare brands. I felt that Valspar had better coverage and a more comfortable nozzle, so Lowe's will now have my spray-painting business (sorry, Home Depot).

Ta-da!!!!!!

I finished the last touch-ups today and reattached the seat, so now it's finally done. Yay!

As I waited for the paint to dry, I worked on finishing another project. I have an antique lamp that has a good structure, but it looked dilapidated, so it didn't really match anyplace in our house. (I had it hiding in the downstairs bathroom that few people ever use.) It's lampshade had also seen better days and although I'm sure it was gorgeous when new, it was now ripped and fading.

Time for some spray paint and a new lamp shade!

I tried taking the lamp apart and that proved difficult, so I ended up disconnecting as much as I could and then carefully spraying each piece.

It was not pretty, and really quite messy, but the end product turned out well:

It matches the chair! Both may end up in my ugly little hole of an office -- any attempt to brighten it and bring color in would be an improvement. But of course that means I wouldn't have these pieces at home, and that might be sad. We'll see what happens....

My last project of the day involved a Good Will find from yesterday. I've had my eye out for an ugly lamp base with potential for a while, ever since I saw what Brandi at Don't Disturb This Groove did with her lamp. (Her lamp is amazingly beautiful! One of these days I'll be brave enough to recover a lampshade.) Most of the lamps at Good Will have been too expensive, but yesterday I lucked out and found this horrifically ugly thing for $5!!

It may be ugly now, but look at the detail!

I walked in yesterday evening and said "Honey, look! I'm gonna spray paint it!" Honey's response: "Of course you are." Hmmm...apparently my obsession with spray paint is noticeable.

I have been looking for lamps and end/coffee tables for our downstairs family room (aka, "The Bar") ever since we updated that room and I haven't found things that I like -- or the things that I like are so ridiculously expensive that it doesn't matter. This lamp was the perfect price, as long as it would turn out well. I bought a blue to match the antique rugs that my grandfather brought back from China decades ago now hanging on my wall. I added a plain white lampshade that I bought on clearance at Target for $3.24. Total cost for a new lamp: $8.24.

Now the detail looks awesome!

Honey loves the addition to the room. My baby Cib asked, "Did you get a new lamp or just spray paint something blue?" Yes to both, my boy.

I think it works in The Bar!