Saving Myself a Seat

You may remember when I blogged about this garden decor chair I made last year:

The chair was a thrift store find. Someone had taken an older wooden chair and done some lovely stenciling on it. The anonymous artist even stenciled the back.

I bought it for $10 and removed the chair pad, leaving a nice hole for a flower pot to fit in. I then went to town adding green accent paint and covering what was left of the seat with broken china mosaic. I added some metal accents and bird house decor as well. It sat on my front porch all summer holding a potted geranium.

As I said, that was last year. Much to my horror, when I brought it in after our long, dry, Colorado summer, the mosaic pieces began to fall off. I was left with this:

So, yesterday I rolled up my sleeves and tried to salvage the chair. First, I chipped away the rest of the mosaic and the grout.

(Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do to recycle the broken china pieces?)

Next, I took a square grapevine wreath that I had from last year and removed the flowers from it. Using garden shears, I cut one side of the wreath off so it would fit onto the chair.

I secured the wreath to the chair's seat using wire, and then covered the wire with more grapevine so it wouldn't be so obvious.


When I was finished securing the grapevine to the chair, I cut some stems from silk flower bushes I already had and arranged them around the wreath...

on all sides. This covered up the yucky part of the chair where the grout had been.

Then, all that was left to do was freshen up the rest of the chair. I did this by adding some greenery and foliage to a faux birds nest that I attached to the chair back, and adding some "climbing" grapevine and other greenery to the other side of the chair back. I finished it off with an antique hand shovel that I hung on the top right of the chair back, and then a little bluebird that I clipped to the top top left of the chair back.

Now the chair is back in its place on my front porch. See how green accent paint on the chair matches my front door?

The Colorado spring is still too iffy to put my geraniums out, so these faux violets will have to do for now!

In a day or two I'm going to show you another old chair that I'm decorating for the garden, but this time from scratch, so if you're interested be sure to check back!

Comments

Catharina Maria said…
Great art work !
Rini the Netherlands
Spotted Sparrow said…
Gorgeous! I like the second reincarnation even better. You are a talented lady!
Wow! This chair is gorgeous! Fabulous work. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I am glad you liked my holidays snaps.
Unknown said…
this is so pretty! and what a great idea...I love those tile pieces...you have to reuse them for something....Melinda
Micki said…
The chair is gorgeous and I loved what you did with it!
Micki
Viola said…
What a great idea, Laurie! It looks fantastic!!!
Lydia said…
Looks great on your front porch !

If I couln't think of anything for the pieces, I would resell them in a kit. Wonderful old pieces with beautiful patterns !
Beca said…
Your so creative! Looks very nice and inviting.
Theresa said…
All your chairs are creative and fabulous!
~Theresa
Evy said…
Wow, that looks AMAZING! What a great idea, you're very, very talented!
extremely creative. taking something nice and making it even better.
Marie said…
Laurie, that chair is fabulous! What a way to showcase it right by the front door. So sweet.

Blessings,
Marie
http://emmacallsmemama.com
Jane said…
I think those broken mosaic pieces would look lovely in a decorative bowl.

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