Not Fit For The Tip. Can I Upcycle This Abandoned Chair?

As I got off the bus in Fallowfield last weekend and started walking to Jake’s, I saw this old chair left on the pavement outside a student house. After a quick inspection I noticed that the leg was hanging off and some of the wooden supports that hold the legs together were missing. It seemed that someone had left it there to get rid of, and so I decided to snap it up and see if I could fix it.

I’ve loved the idea of upcycling old furniture for a while, but without my own car, I’ve missed so many chances to pick up various unwanted pieces of furniture. As a member of several Buy, Sell, Swap groups on Facebook, I regularly see people sharing photos of wardrobes and dressers that they no longer want and are willing to give away free to a good home. If I had a car, I’d be round there at the drop of a hat. While a tatty wooden chair wouldn’t have been my first choice, I realised that this was probably the perfect opportunity to make use of something that was easy to carry and low risk. By low risk I mean that if I mess it up and the whole chair somehow falls apart, it’s not the end of the world. I’m not precious over it and it hasn’t costed me a penny.

When I arrived at Jake’s he was the only one home, so I decided to leave the chair in the front room until my Dad was able to drive over and collect it the next day. But the next morning, half an hour before my Dad was due to arrive, I wandered into the living room and to my horror, the chair had gone. I dashed outside and down the road in my slippers to see if someone had left it by the bins, I then looked in Jake’s backyard before finally looking in the basement. And there it was, lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, screws all over the place and a huge chunk of the chair a few feet away along with the seat cushion.

Turns out one of Jake’s drunken student houesemates had returned in the early hours of the morning and hurled it down the stairs for some reason unbeknownst even to himself. I felt frustrated and angry and disappointed, but to be fair, he’s a nice guy and was extremely apologetic about it and was just as bemused as I was when it came to determining why he committed the crime.

Even though the chair was even more broken than when I had originally found it, I was determined to still have a go at fixing it. I really think there’s still some life left in this old girl, and she’s not yet fit for the tip. So when Dad arrived I bundled the chair into his car and he kindly drove it home for me so that I could work some magic on it as soon as I got chance.

About half an hour later, I got a call from my Mum. Apparently as soon as my Dad arrived home they took the chair into the house and decided to inspect the damage. Dad hadn’t even got chance to take his coat off before he was trying to fix it for me! I know he’d happily fix the whole thing himself and my Mum would love to sand it down, paint it and cover the cushion with a much nicer fabric, but I’m keen to do as much of it as possible myself.

This morning we decided to make a start and spent a bit of time gluing the broken piece from the back of the chair and securing it with clamps to dry. I’ll keep you updated with the progress and will share some photos once I’ve finished upcycling it. Hopefully in a few months’ time I’ll be fixing a whole manner of things and this time next year I’ll be filling my new home without spending a fortune on brand new furniture. We’ll see.

Have you ever upcycled anything? I’d love to hear about your thrifty efforts in the comments below. Feel free to share pictures and links of your proudest upcycling moments 🙂

Update 15th February: The chair is going well. It has now been fixed and I’ve started to paint it. Here are a few progress photos, the full ‘How To’ guide will come very soon!