Chair Rescue DIY Transformation

On a routine drive, four abandoned chairs stood roadside, forgotten and bound for the dump. I saw them not as trash, but as new additions to 'Roadside Chic' decor, waiting for rescue & transformation.

Blue Peace & Love Chair * Seaforth NS View in FOG.

DISCOVERY

Driving in our rural area, at the end of driveways, there are various types of furniture waiting for the garbage truck. I see that some of these pieces are worthy of rescue and repurposing. My interior design sensibilities are a style I call 'Roadside Chic'; it's not for everyone, but it works well with my budget and creative expressions.

Collection from 'Roadside Shopping' now 'Roadside Chic', and view when the 4 chairs were originally in white enamel paint.

Details of decorative paint along the edges of the chair.

          

TRANSFORMATION

Today's world of consumerism has an overabundance of throwaways that still have purpose but get discarded. I see, as an artist, that everything is a resource for creative possibility; it just takes the willingness to transform the potential garbage into an item that can be displayed with joy in one's environment. 

Wood chairs do become loose over time and need some help with good old-fashioned wood glue and maybe even a screw. I don't go so far as to say what I do with this old furniture is about restoring FINE FURNITURE, but it's a quick fix to make the chair FUNKY and become safely sitable again.

 OIL PAINT 

Para Interior Oil Paint BLUE is used for the entire chair surface.

Leftover fine artists' paint is used for chair decoration.

Sanding the chair is important to take off some of the rough edges for a better chance of durability and to prevent peeling off as it ages.

The repurposed blue oil paint was purchased years ago when the paint stores were selling off all their oil-based paint to be replaced with water-based paint. I have a couple of cans of blue oil paint that act as a background surface, acceptable to the artist's oil paint that is left over from a fine art painting session.

PRO for oil-based interior paint. It hardens over time, keeps its luminosity and durability better than water-based paint so far as I have compared it with the water-based paints.

CON for oil-based interior paint. The odor can be bothersome, but it can be remedied with open windows in the studio. Patience is required for the stages to dry to completion, and clean up requires using oil-based thinners for brushes, which is not so environmentally acceptable. REMEDY is to use cheap brushes, wrap them tightly in plastic in between painting and drying layers, and at the end of a project, I will throw the brush out, versus using thinners.

Peace & Love Chair with details.

CREATIVE DESIGN

The seat design is inspired by a favorite drawing/painting done by Picasso, ' The Bouquet of Peace' from 1958. I love daisies and LOVE to pick flowers for bouquets, especially the unruly gathering of informal flowers and grasses in a vase. I chose this image and used it for my transformed rescue chair, 'Peace & Love'.

Sketchbook Drawing for blue chair decoration.

1. Paint the entire chair with blue interior oil paint twice for a durable surface.
2. Pencil drawing in a sketchbook is done to the size needed to cover the seat of the chair. Outline the pencil drawing with a black marker and color in the flowers using COPIC CIAO markers to give me an idea of colors to use.
3.  Use a yellow transfer paper to copy the drawing directly onto the blue painted chair seat.
4. Using the leftover oil paint on the painter's palette, start to fill in the traced lines to give it a base and let it dry. It took about 3 layers of oil paint to cover the design of the drawing. Each time, as it's oil paint, it might take a week to dry between coats. This is not a quick project, especially using oil paint.

'Peace & Love Chair', Transformed by Minaz Jantz

In a world that tosses the usable for the new, I choose transformation over disposal. Restoring and repurposing old discarded furniture can save money, bring character to any home, and unwind the flow of a creative mind. 

FIND TRASH  MAKE TREASURE! Minaz