Recently, I was found these babies in the parking lot of an office where I was interviewing. When I was leaving, I snuck around to where they were sitting and stuffed them in the back seat of my car. They were in bad shape- moldy, stinky messes. They have good bones, though, and I just knew they were save-able.
Here’s a breakdown of the process:
I started out by taking the seats off. I ripped off the fabric and discovered that the foam couldn’t be saved. I pulled out all of the rusty old staples and sprayed the wood bottoms of the chairs with a bleach solution to kill the mold. Getting new seats was simple- I went to a foam store with the wood and had new cushions cut. Sanding the chairs was a real pain- my electric sander wouldn’t fit into some of the curves so there was a lot of hand sanding. There were a couple of unsightly holes in the sides of the chairs, so I filled them with layers of plastic wood.When it came time to paint, the finish wasn’t coming out quite right. I did a quick web search and made a little discovery. These two words will change your life. Ready?
TACK CLOTH! (Hey, I’m still learning here!) Normally, I would just wipe off pieces before painting, but tack cloth makes all the difference- it makes paint go on super smooth. Since I had decided to give the chairs a little sheen, this was really important.
After a couple of coats of paint, they were ready to be covered, and before I knew it, they were done. I originally intended to sell them, but love them so much I can’t bare to part with them quite yet.
Roadside Rehab 
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