Upcycle and recycle

24th June

It's official.

I. Can. Not. Reupholster.

About five years ago I was an avid follower and user of free cycle.  My most successful item was the

1950's dresser ready to be re loved

acquisition of a round pine table and four chairs.  See the post   here and  for paint details  here     At about the same time I also acquired a beautiful but somewhat unloved and neglected 1950's kidney shaped table.  By pure luck it fitted in an alcove in the spare room with only a couple of millimetres to spare each side.  And there it sat for five years, with me also neglecting and not giving it the love it deserved.  It was quite literally ignored.  I knew that I wanted to bring it back to glory with a modern twist but to find enough time was always the problem.

So as the dressing table was 'out of sight' and therefore was not a pressing item on my to do list,  I made the children carry it down the stairs and leave it in the middle of the utility room.  Now I was bound to have to do something with it as I would have to squeeze past it everyday.

How wrong was I?

In fact the dressing table became a convenient dumping ground for the whole family and a favourite sleeping abode for the cat.  We knocked into it, squeezed past it and cursed it for 6 months before I had had enough.

One sunny day last week I dragged it out to the garden, wiped it over to ensure there was no dust or grease on it and just slapped on the most amazing paint called Autentico.  I used the colour Dolphin.  It was touch dry in less than 30 minutes and I decided for good measure to give it a second coat.  That night it was back in the spare room, although not the room it was in before.  During the six months it sat in the utility room my son decided he wanted the spare room, so now his old bedroom was to be the spare room.  No more snug alcove for this dressing table!

Painting was the quick and easy part but in true old fashioned style all the drawers had previously been covered in material.  Having purchased some beautiful Designers Guild velvet in vivid colours I thought it would be great to add this splash of colour to the spare room and promptly began to staple gun and glue the velvet onto the drawers.  

Big mistake.

Have you tried fitting velvet around the corners of drawers?  I suggest you don't.  It was too thick and cumbersome and I could not close the drawers.  I had a genius idea to begin planning down the sides with my husband's granddads plane.  Great fun but it wasn't the right thing to do and it took me only a few minutes of planning to realise I was on a hiding to nothing and the velvet had to go and I had to seek out much thinner material.

100% cotton came to my rescue.

Adding the fabric to the outer edges was difficult

Recycling this dressing table was now fully in my sights and I stapled gunned the night away, literally and fabric glued where needed.  I am not quite finished as I ran out of staples sometime after midnight and now need to go and procure some more.  I notice too that two of the drawers are sticking a bit, so a little more planning may actually be in order, but I am delighted in how it is shaping up and coming along.  Just need to make sure I finish these last little snags.  

Originally where you see the long painted arm,
it had a fabric curtain to hide the drawers

I think once I have the spare room fully sorted and cleared out of unnecessary junk that this dressing table will make a great addition to the room...

Just a few snags left to sort out

Almost finished my modern 1950's dresser

♥  Have you upcylced any furniture,

what was your experience?  ♥