Junk Yard Step Chair Redo: $11 Knockoff

My old Dodge pickup is rusting. Trying to restore the rusting parts piece by piece, hoping to keep it in good condition, my handy husband went to his favorite salvage yard in search of a fender. He called me when he found one and said, "I've got a fender and there is an old kitchen step stool seat thing here that is getting thrown out. It's really rough. Is it something you are interested in trying to fix up?"  I said "YES! Please and thank you!"  

Rough, but having potential, I intended to redo the step chair in industrial style for the workshop. I envisioned chrome legs and steel diamond plated steps, seat and backrest.  That was... until I saw this... 

 Bicycle Spoke Stool -Industrial Furniture at Milan Direct

Leather and rustic metal.  I love it.   Old world marries the new world.  Intriguingly attractive to me. 

I changed my "diamond plate mind".  

A woman's "right" thing to do.  So I set myself up to replicate my inspirational piece idea. 

"Original junk yard- to- be- thrown- away condition." 

To begin, I had to remove the rusted and padless seat; then remove the damaged backrest.  The seat was attached with bend tabbing.  Carefully bending it away, I was surprised to find the metal still strong;  despite the rust and neglect.  The backrest was secured with four screws.  Easy peasy.  

The original upholstery was a black vinyl. So totally vintage.  It never had a facelift before other than someone's attempt to spray it a copper color. 

I removed the glued on padding from both pieces. 

Then I cleaned and sanded them.

Even though the pieces were not going to be seen, they will be used in their original places. So I sprayed them with a rust preventive paint. 

Also prepped the area where the upholstered backrest goes.

Paint and primer in one was a very simple single spraying step. ($7)

Then I started the sanding process. The steps were the easy part to do. Trying to get the entire chair to the bare metal was the labor intensive part. 

When the seat and backrest parts were dry, I started upholstering with foam pieces. (Scraps from previous projects)

I bought a "pleather" skirt at a thrift store ($3.99)  and opted to use that material.

I really didn't want to use the area with the skirt pockets, but after setting it to see how it looked, I went for it.  Adding a little stitching detail, it became a design statement.  I used sticky glue to attach the fabric to the metal frames, further holding it in place with gorilla tape.  Using memory foam on the seat, the weight of a full can of paint helped to hold the foam down while the glue dried. 

Using a primer and paint in one again, I sprayed on flat black to the entire chair. 

After the paint dried, I sanded to distress some areas allowing the bare metal to show through.

Then, clear coated with Valspar polyurethane to seal the paint and metal for protection. 

After the chair dried, I attached the backrest and seat. 

(Cute pocket.  It has room for a chocolate bar...  for those emergency moments, of course.)

Those who follow me, know I'm a "leather belt lover-recycler".  So of course I had to trim off the seat with an old worn  belt for a little more character.  It had all of the natural distress I wanted done for me.  I removed the backrest supports and drilled a hole through the belt into the original screw holes on the chair.  The belt became secured all around the rim of the seat.

Best part:
Ready to move into the workshop.

And that chunk of metal nearby... that's my salvaged truck fender.  (Hubby's project waiting for him.)  I wanted to use it in this backdrop to be all industrial-like.

An afterthought.  Those come around now and then... I applied glue to belt ends and slid them into both of the backrest supports.  It added a little more "raw" element.

I got the look I love for much less than my inspirational piece.

So now, hubby and I have a workbench chair.  An awesome old one.  Great step up type to use for those higher shelves that I used to use a crate box to get to. 

For just eleven bucks! 

Do you have an inspirational piece too? If so, I'd love to see what you do. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Proudly voted as Blogger of the week at: 

My Repurposed Life -Catch as Catch Can 

Trash to Treasure Tuesday

Thursday Favorite Things 

Fireplace and Mantel Makeover

Welcome to our river rock fireplace. It's located in our dining room. One of the features that sold the fixer upper house to us. It's non-working due to a cracked chimney and it is sealed off for energy purposes. There was an electric fireplace heater inserted into it that we removed ... because like most of the house...it was broken as well. We aren't sure if we will ever replace the chimney and reline the fireplace so I leave a bunch of candles in and on it for when we need them. The only thing I've ever done to it was paint the wood mantel from red to black.  Sitting there with a whole bunch of candles. The only one suitable was my log candle on its cast iron base. So it sat the last few years. Always bothering me as it lacked so much and dusting it has never been pleasant. 

But during Christmas season, I decorate it to the hilt. Basically, it's sole purpose has been a Christmas fireplace. 

No matter how much time is spent using the vacuum on this area, it was just a dirty place. 

So I cleaned it well with a scrub brush and painted it with a "rusting paint kit".

Total. Epic. Fail.

The rust base looked nice, then the brown top coat just didn't cut it. The whole area still looked dark and dirty. 

So I used a primer. Well, that is brighter.  Our lighting in this area is quite poor being "yellow and warm" bulbs.  White will work well. 

Then a white flat paint. 

Then I cleaned and poly coated all of the rocks and mortar. Hoping this makes my dusting chore easier. Actually really, really hoping!  

Then I moved on to fireplace decor.  A $13 thrift shop find.  A huge antique look jar lamp that's not antique but certainly vintage. 

Well, I prefer it to be a jar accent piece. So I removed the electric parts. 

Another thrift shop find.  And THIS was my motivational piece to get the fireplace cleaned up.  "A Scottish Raid" engraved print from the original painting by ROSA BONHEUR.  I fell in love with it and it reminded me of my grandfather. I splurged $75 to own it without even thinking of where to put it. I brought it home and looked around the house to hang it. No real special spot anywhere until I placed it on the mantel and realized ... aha! 

So here we are.  At this post. Thanking that beautiful print for getting me off my duff. 

Drilling into the mortar and securing the frame to the mantel wall is when the inspirations began.  That jar will go in the fireplace along with similar decor I thrifted for and this is going to be a far better epic than my epic fail! 

Scored this covered dish with the fabulous trim... 

... and this gorgeously detailed silver tray both under $10 thrifting... (Good  grief! Good junk!) 

...another serving dish ($5)  missing its cover, a heavy pewter pitcher from Good Will ($4) and I put my log candle with cast iron holder back where it was. 

I've got some kind of theme going. 

Visiting my husband's father and fixing a few things in the basement I discovered this yoke with spare parts. I asked my husband about it and he said he had that stashed there for years. I nearly kicked him in the shin. "WHAT?!? You had this all along and never told me? This is going home with us." And it did.  Using just hot water and soap. I cleaned it up and conditioned the wood with coconut oil.

My mom gave me an old handmade wooden box filled with horseshoes, so it will now live here at the mantel.  I also keep a pine cone from North Carolina sitting there, given to me by my uncle who passed away. 

A thrift shop find of wood carved wall art displaying a spinning wheel and an old rocker on a braided rug. 

And this antique wooden shovel my husband had stashed away.  (He is full of surprises, isn't he? )

I scored an antique trunk at the Habitat for Humanity Restore. I'll work on that in another post. It sits where it will live when I finish it. 

And all this time I neglected this area. 

Good bye dingy and hello "old country". 

Not really an antique collector, but now our dining room will be more interesting for me to decorate.

Decorating this room with old family items, photos and awesome good finds is going to be fun. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Linked up to

 Songbird 

Indoor to Outdoor Ceiling Fan

I bought a cute little ceiling fan for our master bedroom. Removing the large and outdated fan we inherited with the house we bought, I kept it for a redo.  I like outdoor fans on porches and wondered if I could convert this indoor fan into an outdoor fixture. 

First, I disassembled the fan. I removed the light fixture completely. I don't need or want it on the deck.  Then removed the hardware and paddles. 

I chose the "hammered" look paint.
Suitable color and texture for outdoors.

Keeping the screws with the hardware enables the screw heads to be painted the same rather easily. 

Two good coats of the hammered spray paint covered well. 

While the motor and hardware dried, I worked on the paddles. I cleaned them well. I chose to keep the darker woodgrain side of the paddles for the visible side of the fan. I applied two coats of outdoor Spar Polyurethane for weatherproofing.  

I applied black enamel for the upper side of the fan. Then two coats of outdoor Spar Polyurethane.  

Then prepared the motor housing unit for the fan on our pergola topped decking. Using the same pressure treated wood, cut to size in between two beams, yet wide enough to mount the fan, I built a box to be weatherproofed from the top. Caulking, and spray insulation to deter water from dripping into the motor and topped with another pressure treated top, sealed with caulking. Then, drilled a hole wide enough to accommodate the wiring, through the top of the box. Weatherproof putty was applied at the wiring hole.  Then stained the housing box and mounted the fan bracket.  

Once I attached the motor, I replaced the paddles. Hubby has the pleasure of running 14' of the wiring to the GFI outlet connections on the deck.
I don't cut into walls and do wiring alone. 

The BBQ throne... a work in progress.  Now it has a fan.
(Yes I do use two grills at a time. Some get togethers can be as many as 26 people at a time. Ten burners are a huge help to me.)  

Of course for the winter months, I'll remove the paddles. We do get heavy snowfalls. But during the summer, this is a great way to keep insects blown away while enjoying the fan breeze. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~