Rescuing the dining table: part 1

We asked our landlord for a dining table, and this is what he had to offer:

 It's perfectly sturdy, and solid wood. It is a double drop leaf table and therefore can seat 6-8, not that we'd ever have that many people here! I took this picture with a flash to really show you how bad it was. The huge patches in the varnish and water damage. Lovely!

I had to hide this horrific table under a bed sheet because I had no table cloths. So there is a double remedy here; sanding the top down and re-varnishing it, and making a table cloth for it. On a very limited budget. 

I acquired a £8 tin of Ronseal quick dry indoor furniture varnish. The house next door put it out on the wall, and in Bristol certainly, there is a policy that if you put something out on the pavement by your house, it's free. We've offloaded lots of stuff this way, and acquired some awesome books and an £8 full tin of varnish!!

I bought some coarse sand paper, and a sanding block, and got to work: 

Not long after I started, I saw the massive difference, albeit the right side covered in fine varnish-dust. I kept sanding and sanding, covering the entire lounge in fine grain dust. We've killed our vacuum cleaner in the process (it was rubbish anyway!)

After some hard graft, waiting, vacuuming and then 2 coats of varnish and some more sanding, our borrowed dining table is radically improved:

Unfortunately, the table has permanent, deeper damage, probably from sitting in cold, damp storage for ages. Plus it has been neglected for a long time too. However, I'm no longer embarrassed by this table. It was such a state that I had to have something covering it. 


Total cost of the project so far:

Sandpaper: 90p (2 sheets coarse, 1 sheet fine)
Sanding block: £1.99
Ronseal varnish: Free

After all this work, I still wanted to make a tablecloth for the table, to help protect it, and have something washable to take off when it gets dirty. I want to show you that too, but I think I better split this rescue into two posts because otherwise it would be too long!


I'm so happy with how the table turned out, and feel so much better about the lounge now it has a decent table. Even though it's not perfect. I have to remember that this is not even my table, so I can't put too much effort/money into something that I won't be keeping! I hope the landlord will be pleased though, if he ever sees it. 


Have you done any super cheap budget projects lately that have had big results?


 

My attempt at upholstery - Part 1

I must say I never envisaged myself tearing off old ugly fabric from a chair and replacing it with something new. Before I tell you how I did it, here are the before and after images:

BEFORE

AFTER

It's not entirely obvious on the photo, but the seat had fallen through, who knows when. The inner "lines" on the seat are where the fabric dips.  Totally not a comfy chair. So the solution was to cover it with a cushion to make it just barely useable.  And then the cushion fell apart.  

Ok, so I knew about this chair.  Then I saw a programme on Channel 4od called "SuperScrimpers"   where they just happened to feature a tutorial on re-upholstering sad-looking furniture on the cheap.  I then remembered I'd seen a tutorial online somewhere, and went through a few links before I found it again, here.  

I got totally excited/impatient/hyper when I discovered that the seat was removable, and that I could probably pull off a little upholstery project.  One little issue was that erm... this isn't my chair(!!!) so I knew I'd have to ask my landlady whether she would let me give the chairs a face-lift.  Thankfully she approved!!

Aside from the tools for this project, which are an investment because I can use them again, I spent very little on the materials for the first chair.  I needed new ply-board for the bottom so the new foam wouldn't fall through the frame.  B&Q: 50p. Nice! A visit to the Children's Scrapstore (amazing place! -membership req.) resulted in a foam pad and enough upholstery fabric (from Ikea) to cover all the chairs.  That and lots of other things came to £5. Score. 

I started straight away because, I'm impatient! Here is how I did it:

 The first job was to remove the old upholstery tacks...

Frame exposed, I think these chairs have been upholstered a few times, judging by the holes in it! 

 I decided to leave the green stuff on because I didn't have anything to replace it with.

The plyboard was missing so I made a template from paper and lined it up on the new plyboard:

A faint pencil mark on the board was enough to saw it.

Then I took some little nails and attached the board to the frame:

In between this photo and the next one I placed this on top of the foam pad and traced around it, and then cut it to the same shape (with a breadknife).  

 I wanted to practise first with some other fabric before I let loose on the real thing, and I figured it would make it easier if I pulled the foam pad into shape using this fabric. 

 

So then came the lovely green fabric, originally from Ikea. I started by stapling one side with one staple, then the opposite side.  Then the same for the two other sides.  Next, I stapled in 2 staple increments (working out from the middle of each side) until I'd almost reached the corners.  

The corners are probably the hardest bit because I had to get the fabric tight enough, but also follow the shape of the frame, and make sure there weren't any ripples on the side.  

Next, the finished product!

I originally planned to sand the frame down and stain the wood a bit darker, but since these aren't my chairs, and I have a limited budget, I decided I'd leave it this time.  I'm pretty happy with the result, and the landlady is too - yay! 

I have 3 more chairs to do, of which 2 will be done with a maroon fabric, so I will post Part 2 with some more pics soon.

-Linda