metal chair = magnet board!

a spur-of-the-moment solution to a project i'd been considering took over my weekend!
making a change to the black metal chair in this photo has been on my mind,
but i wasn't sure about the method. or the outcome. mostly, the permanence of it.
so it's been 'on the back burner' for awhile. um... years.
then a solution presented itself - and in less than ten minutes, i had done it!

continue reading to see the final colorful outcome of this crazy-easy undertaking,
and hear a tale about the chair in this photo. it's been on a journey to get to me...

if you look closely at the photo below - just to the right of the piano bar -
you'll see two black metal chairs sitting at the table. two more were on the other side of that table.

that photo is from one of my booths at a vintage show in Seattle - in 2009.
i had found those chairs at a city garage sale, cleaned them up, touched up the paint,
and took them to a vintage show. where they did not sell. so i took them to THIS show,
and put them into this booth after the white chairs originally sitting at that table sold.
then, the black chairs sold. (so did the table, but to different people!)
and that was the last i saw of them.

until i walked into a booth at a show in San Diego in 2015 - 
and saw a black chair that i thought looked an awful lot like those four i used to have.
i picked up the chair, turned it over,
and there in the faintest print under the seat was the word 'RETREAT'.
a word that i had written on those chairs after touching up their paint. six years earlier.
this was one of MY chairs! i was stunned. and i teared up a little.

i imagined the journey this chair has been on in that time,
travelling across at least three state lines to make it from Washington state to So Cal
being shuffled from truck to booth to store to maybe a house and then to a garage sale
and then back to a truck and a booth at a show... where i found it!
and then i bought the chair.

i'm not sure the woman i bought it from understood my amazement at finding this chair,
or that i was meant to have it back in my life. but she sold it to me anyway... 
for about four times what i had originally bought it for (six years earlier)
and for double the price that i had sold it for (six years earlier).

since i brought it home, it's been kinda' shuffling around my office/studio.
recently it's been hiding behind the door. that's just SAD.
and i've been hemming and hawing and going back and forth
because i had the idea to PAINT the chair in bright happy colors
(so it wouldn't have to hide behind the door anymore).
i even had a pattern in mind (more on that in a minute...) but i couldn't do it.
i just couldn't bring myself to change this chair from what she had been for so long.

then this past Friday, i walked into a local Dollar Tree * store and saw this:

it's a sheet of large stickers meant to go on walls - removable stickers.
(my photo shows the package opened up, so you can see both sides w/ all of the stickers at once)
they could not be closer to what i had in mind when i was considering painting the chair:
the exact color palette AND a floral theme.
the perfect solution to my 'paint or not to paint' dilemma!

so i spent one whole DOLLAR for these stickers, went home,
and promptly applied them to the plain little black metal chair:

i cut the 'vase' stickers into smaller versions, cut some stem sections out of the leftovers,

and arranged the vases, flowers, and birds in a happy scene.

(the photo above shows the chair seat, the photo below shows the chair back)

once done, i knew i wanted to use this as a piece of wall art, 

so i hung it on one of my old wood gates in my studio / office.

look closely and you can see the wreath hanger that i used to hold the chair - 

and i covered the front part of the hanger with part of a 'vase' sticker so it would blend in.

 the old wood gate she hangs on is next to my sweet mannequin in my studio.
and here's the thing... see that 'skirt'? not a skirt. just fabric.
fabric that i LOVE and was inspired by -
because i was going to paint that pattern on the chair. in the same colors.
now look at the stickers. uh huh. now you see why i bought them!

and - bonus - should i ever decide i want the chair back in 'original' condition,
all i have to do is pull off those removable stickers. in a flash, it's 'restored'!

i love that it's finally back in sight and looks SO good.
but, um.... there's more!

 once the newly-prettied up chair was hanging up on the wood gate,
i realized that it could be a magnet board!

i tested it out with a couple of small magnets and some colorful cards, and it worked!
(you can see a hang tag, too - that was the $20 price tag when i bought her.
i covered it with part of a 'vase' sticker and changed the cord to gussy it up)

yes, the chair IS still usable as a chair. it's just prettier as wall art!

you could certainly do this with a metal chair that hasn't been sticker-ed.
note: this one is very lightweight, so the wreath hanger is sufficient.
if you use a heavier chair, you'll need a more heavy-duty hanger.

* not a sponsored post.

shared online:

funky junk interiors | diy salvaged junk projects #532

thank you for featuring my project, Miss Donna!