One person's trash...

I've always been a bit of a trash digger. It might have started in my youth: my mother had a tendency to throw my things away and so I had to get use to digging through last night's dinner to find yesterday afternoon's art project. We called her The Human Garbage Can because if you left something around, there was a good chance it would be on its way to the local landfill by the next morning.

Now, I love New York City for many reasons. But do you know the best thing about living on the Upper East Side? The trash. Rich people's trash rocks. So far I have scavenged a full length mirror, a giant 5'x4' painting that now hangs above my couch, a full set of Container Store elfa drawers (which was quickly taken from me by a homeless man), and most recently, this chair:

Now don't rush to judge. I knew this ugly chair had potential. And Sky and I will show you how I took it from trash to treasure.

Step one: Remove hair-encrusted felt pads.

Step two: Remove the seat from the chair.

Step three: Give it a light sand.

Step four: Remove all the layers of fabric and old batting from the seat. This chair had 4 layers of gross fabric.

Step five: Paint the bottom of the chair seat. Ok, so I know that nobody will ever see the bottom of the chair seat. So you can really skip this step. But I knew that I would always be haunted by it, just hiding under there, naked and unpainted. So I painted it.

Step six: Paint the chair. You can do it. Don't be scared. It's just a little paint.

Step seven: Keep painting until it's finished and thoroughly covered. Here it is after one coat of paint. I ended up doing 3 coats, but 2 really would have been enough.

Step eight: Use a staple gun to attach fabric and padding to the chair seat. Then reattach the seat to your finished chair.

Before:

Meet after:

So before you go and judge that lonely piece of trash, remember that a little creativity can go a long way.

Crafty Trails!