Painting Metal: An Ice Cream Parlor Chair

When you become known as a hoarder collector of cool old things, it's amazing how many people you find have cool old things just sitting around collecting dust, that they want get rid of, but would rather know they're going to a loving home instead of Goodwill.  It's like telling yourself a pet you had to give away is running happily around a farm instead of at the animal shelter--we're funny about our stuff, aren't we?  I've said before, I'm an extremely sentimental person so I almost NEVER pass up something old from family.  That said, a while back my grandma told me she had an ice cream parlor chair of my great-great grandma's just sitting in her shed, and did I want it?  Uh, is that even a question?  YES!  She brought it up to me a couple of weeks ago and I knew it would be an easy project, but it's been sitting in the garage with the rest of the pile.  So...I thought it would be a good, small start to my $20 challenge.  Total cost of this one for me: $3.67 (a can of spray paint).  I had planned to do it white or gold, something to keep it sort of "classic," but when my two year old suggested pink (is there any other color?) I thought I'd go for it.  Right now it's sitting at my daughter's desk, because the stool that I originally bought for the desk was becoming the bane of my existence.  Think metal scratching on tile ALL. DAY. LONG! So this may eventually move down to a desk in her room, but for now, it's a good little pop of color in my kitchen and a bright spot for my sanity.  (Yes this is also metal, but it's significantly bigger and heavier than the stool, so she can't drag it around as much.)

This chair was in pretty bad shape and had already been spray painted once and was chippy and rusty...

...which is where these come in:

They're on the sandpaper aisle, but they're more like Brillo pads and work great for getting rid of all that old paint and rust.  I've been informed that steel wool works well too. After a thorough scrub down, or hose down in my case, just "sand" the clean surface like you would normally sand anything else. I forgot to take an after pic, but it gets those rough spots out, evens out the chips, and gets rid of the rust.  I am admittedly impatient and maybe even a little lazy sometimes when it comes to sanding (or anything really) and I did want to keep a little bit of that old look, so I opted not to sand it completely smooth so the paint would chip again in some spots when I was done. 

I recovered the cushion with a drop cloth scrap I already had lying around (you can get a 6x9 for like $10 at Walmart).  

Just measure and cut your fabric (and by measure I mean lay your cushion down and cut a piece of fabric big enough to wrap around the cushion--technical, I know).

Start stapling it down.  And make sure you work all of the folds down on to the bottom of the cushion so you have a smooth top and sides.

When I staple a cushion, I alternate sides every so often so I don't get all the way around and realize I've pulled all of the fabric to one side and end up short.

Trim the excess.

A coat of Krylon in Watermelon, same as the pink cabinet and she's finished.

Love the little bright spot it adds to my soft color palette.

Minus drying time for the paint this project literally took about half an hour.  And even if I'd had to buy everything, it would have cost me  about $14.00 for the spray paint and drop cloth, with A LOT of drop cloth left for other projects.  If you don't have a staple gun, buy one!  They're $15.00 for the Heavy Duty--which I recommend--and like $10.00 for a "regular" duty, and I use mine ALL THE TIME.  Remember when I had to reinforce this?  You'll wonder how you ever lived without it.  I promise!

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Tatertots & Jello / Primitive & Proper / I Heart Naptime / Liz Marie Blog / 30 Handmade Days / Whipperberry