Garden Furniture Makeover
If you know anything about us then you will know we love a wee makeover project and saving things from landfill and giving them a new lease of life. Let’s face it we’ll all get a bit old and rusty one day but we’re not ready for the rubbish heap yet! So when we came across this sad, rusty old bistro set we thought, “Hey, we can turn you into something beautiful and functional again”. And so we did. Here’s our guide to a simple wee garden furniture makeover…
A rusty old bistro set needing some TLC
You will need:
- Garden furniture
- Sandpaper / sanding tools
- Primer
- Paint
What to do:
1. As with all these types of upcycling projects, the “prep” stage is always the most boring, ahem I mean important! We spent a lot of time rubbing down the tables and chairs and removing rust and making the furniture as smooth as possible.
2. Next came the coats of primer. You will need to give at least two coats – the more the better really and the less chance of the rust coming back through.
The primer stage is crucial to helping keep the rust at bay and the new paint hold
3. And finally, the exciting part, the top coats! We chose a mustard yellow spray paint. You could equally used a brush on paint if you prefer. Again, you will need a minimum of two coats for a good coverage.
A lovely yellow paint adds a colourful splash of colour to the table and chairs
And now it’s time to sit down and enjoy your hard work and pat yourself on the back for saving more rubbish ending up in landfill.
Our “new” furniture fits perfectly on our wee balcony
I wonder what we can upcycle next…
Vialii
Free Upcycled Garden Bunting
Our play house bunting was start to look a little sad and faded so we needed something new and colourful to add some pizzazz to the play house. We had been given some plastic wallets recently which we have no use for in the office but we knew they would come in handy for a crafty project sometime. So we decided to turn them into some upcycled garden bunting and create a fun and free addition to the garden. Here’s how…
The playhouse bedecked in its upcycled garden bunting
You will need:
- Plastic wallet
- A piece of cardboard
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Scalpel or Scissors
- Bias binding or string
- Thread or staples
Old plastic wallets can be upcycled into garden bunting
To make:
- Make your triangular template using your cardboard, ruler and pencil
Make your cardboard template
2. Draw round your template onto your plastic wallet. We used the bottom of the folder that is joined together as the top of our bunting so that we had double thickness and stronger colour
Make your bunting out of the plastic wallet
3. Cut out your triangle – we used a scalpel but you could just use scissors. Don’t cut your joined end.
4. Repeat until you had all your bunting made
5. Add your bias binding or string through the middle of each triangle and either sew or staple them down.
You can sew or staple your bunting together
The bunting looks so pretty and colourful
6. Add to your garden.
Pretty upcycled bunting for the garden
Aren’t they a pretty addition. We have lots of folders left, I wonder what we will make with them next!
Mama Vialii!