Be gone, hideous brown vinyl!

Reupholstering furniture is not as easy as those design shows on HGTV would have you believe. Or maybe we’re just dunces. In any case, here’s the story of our first foray into the wonderful world of furniture reupholstery…

One night as I was walking Dexter (in the rain), I saw a set of 4 absolutely hideous chairs sitting in front of one of the neighbouring buildings. When I say hideous, I mean hideous. Well, here, see for yourself:

Lovely, no? But look at the legs. There’s potential there, right? At least that’s what I thought on that dark, rainy night. So I ran back inside, told R about them (even tried to sketch the shape of the legs, quite unsuccessfully), and thankfully managed to convince her that they were worth going out in the rain to take a peek. I completely thought she’d hate them, but no! She loved the legs too! Because we only have a 1-bedroom apartment, we decided to take 2 of the 4 chairs.

And so began the long, frustrating process of re-doing these chairs. Here’s the skinny on how it unfolded:

1. We took apart the chairs — unscrewed the backs and seats from the legs, then removed that beautiful brown vinyl. Thankfully R had the foresight to save the best pieces of vinyl to serve as the pattern for the new coverings.
2. What lurked under that vinyl was scary. The foam was shot – totally moldy. Even the wood had mold growing on it. So we chucked the foam (obviously), but since we don’t have a wood shop out back for occasions such as this (shocking, I know), we had to do what we could to salvage the frame. That involved rubber gloves, bleach, and a little elbow grease.
3. After the freshly washed wood was dry, I painted it. You know, just in case. Fortunately, the previous tenant had left behind some fuchsia paint – terrible wall colour, but fine for wood that’s going to be covered by both foam and fabric.

After all the prep work, we needed to take a trip to the fabric store. We trekked out to Rockland Textiles who, unbeknownst to us, were celebrating some big anniversary that day, so there was plenty of free food to munch on as we browsed the samples. We spent over an hour in the main front room, looking through swatch books. Finally we both fell in love with the same fabric! It was perfect – beautiful, sophisticated yet understated, neutral. Perfect, that is, until we saw the price. I think I nearly choked on the free two-bite brownies I was scarfing down when the helpful salesperson told us it was in the order of hundreds of dollars per yard. Deflated, we kept searching. Book after book. Finally – and I don’t know why we didn’t do this earlier – we said to each other that there must be some sort of warehouse part to the store, you know, the part of the store where the ordinary plebs shop. We wandered away from that front room (away, sadly, from the goodies) and, lo and behold, stumbled into the cheap room, where we eventually found our fabric (for less than $10 a yard, if I recall correctly) and the requisite foam.

After that it was a flurry of scissors, needles, and staple guns. R did most of the pattern-making and sewing, bless her heart, while I wielded the staple gun. In the end, we got it done. They aren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination — they’re a bit lumpy, the fabric sags here and there — but what an improvement!

Chalkboard jar labels

Over the years we have amassed quite the “eclectic” collection of jars. We didn’t really see a point in buying ones that were all matchy match when we can just repurpose the ones that come with our pickles, pasta sauce, and other jarred foods.

But after mistaking icing sugar for cornstarch, we knew that labels were a must. At first we printed up some clear labels to stick on the jars, but they weren’t very durable, plus it meant that each jar could only have one use. The solution: some painter’s tape and a small can of chalkboard paint. Now all our jars can be labelled and relabelled as often as we like. We use white pencil crayon since it’s not as messy as chalk, and it works just fine.

Here’s a picture of a small selection of our jars:

For scavengers and enablers: a short guide

A nifty little piece on dumpster diving from the fabulous Apartment Therapy. We implement a lot of these tips, especially the first / last of the month scavenging bonanza – it’s particularly fruitful here in Studentville at the beginning and end of semester. One tip that we haven’t had the chance to cash in on yet is the church renos. I’ve always wanted a pew! One day the stars will align and the scavenging gods will make it happen…

Sculptural refuse: The chair dragon by Benjamin Jones and Anna Hecker

I enjoyed this neat art project in NYC of  a 30ft dragon made up of discarded chairs, kept more or less in their original shape to tell a story of trash and recovery.

Chair Dragon by Benjamin Jones and Anna Hecker

From Discarded:

While the sidewalks of New York City on trash night are a rich resource of useful items and cultural artifacts, most New Yorkers hold pre-conceived fears of tapping into this resource: practical fears of dirt and vermin, and emotional fears based on the societal perception of welcoming discarded items into our homes. The resulting obsession with new purchases saps the world of natural resources, and the ease of shopping versus crafting creates a psychic distance from our belongings that enables us to acquire and discard at will. By refocusing our communities on the process of foraging and creation, we can help transform our society into one that values originality and sustainability rather than purposeless consumption.

Mount Trashmore

We live in an area that’s heavily populated by students. At the end of every term, the amount of ‘garbage’ piled in and around the dumpster and on the curb is truly mind-boggling. Allow me to demonstrate:

Exhibit 1 – Garbage piled along the back fence, around the corner from the dumpster

Exhibit 2 – the overflowing dumpster

Exhibit 3 – the front lawn

Crazy, right? A lot to take in, eh? Let me distill it down to two points: (1) that is a LOT of garbage that’s going to end up in the landfill and (2) most of that stuff is still in great condition. So why’s it being thrown out? Here’s my theory: these students are completely and hopelessly swept up in today’s pervasive ‘throw-away’ culture. They get to the end of the semester and, for whatever reason – maybe they don’t feel like moving their stuff home or maybe they’re just tired of this year’s trendy Ikea dresser – they just toss it and say, “It’s OK, mummy and daddy will buy me a new one next year.”

Now, I could tolerate this if these students disposed of their unwanted furniture responsibly. There are lots of organizations that would come pick it up. And of course there’s always craigslist or kijiji. But alas, it appears that making a simple phonecall or taking a few minutes to post an ad online is too difficult for these youngsters when there’s beer to drink and booty to shake.

So what can be done? Well, for starters, I think the university’s housing office should make an effort to educate students about how they can get rid of their unwanted (but still useable) stuff without throwing it in the dumpster. It could be as simple as putting together a resource list, but even better would be to rent a big truck at the end of a semester and organize a mass pick-up of those large household items that are tough to transport. Or what about a giant garage sale? Or a university version of craigslist?

Also – and this is going to sound harsh – I think a lot of these students need to be taught some responsibility, and what better way than for their parents to cut them off? Not completely, necessarily – they could still cover tuition, books, and other essentials. But mummy and daddy could start saying “You’re on your own” for the beer money and that terribly funky accent mirror that will inevitably be out of style and in the trash at the end of the year.

And finally, students need to start embracing their inner poubelle chic. Scavenging is environmentally friendly. It’s cheap. And it’s an adventure – it’ll give you great stories to tell over beer, which you can buy using the money you earned selling your unwanted stuff on craigslist. “Did I ever tell you about the time that I found a pair of amazing retro chairs sitting on the curb…?”