Furniture Refurbishment ~ We found more Chairs

CRAZY US!

We found more rattan chairs and of course we had to have it! Someone had thrown away six white color rattan chairs.  We took only one as the others were rotting.  

Funny how I have always wanted white rattan chairs and now that I found them, I want to spray them bright lemon yellow, and that is just what I did.  This rattan chair will be used in my craft room.

Brought home two rattan chairs but only one was in good condition.
After spray paint ~ the bright lemon  yellow.

The rattan chair in the midst of being spray painted.

Furniture Refurbishment

We recently brought home two rattan chairs that were thrown away.  I see these chairs every time on my way to work, but because they were thrown in the shrubs, I could not take them myself.  So finally, on one Saturday, I dragged Hubby along and we went to get the chairs.  One was in good condition and the other not so.

These chairs will go nicely into the children's room for their study table.  We brought them home, gave it a good wash and Hubby sanded it down.  Next step will be to spray paint it to the color of our children's liking and buy a cushion for these chairs.  The girl wants her chair to be Mint color while the boy wants his chair to be Silver or Gold color.

This will be our 5th Chair Refurbishment. We also refurbished a baby rocking chair and you can read about it here and here.  We also refurbished other rattan chairs which we picked up from road sides and dumpsters.  You can read about these chairs here. 

This is where we found the rattan chairs

We had to wash the chairs as fungus was growing on the rattan chairs

Left : After sanding down
Right : Before sanding down

Before being spray painted

After spray painted and I sewed the cushion cover

Baby Rocking Chair Update

Hubby has fixed the baby rocking chair and it now rocks!  It took two cans of spray paint for the baby rocking chair.  I am so happy with the color and so is CinaBoy.  It is now his favourite chair in the house.

Here are the updated pictures of the baby rocking chair.

The Before ...

The In the process ...

The After ...

A close-up of the baby rocking chair

Baby Rocking Chair

I found another Chair! ... rather I picked up another chair that somebody threw away. Hmm ... note to self, I may have a weakness for Chairs, besides Bags and Fabric.

Anyhow, it's a Baby Rocking Chair made out of rattan.  My little CinaBoy just loves it, he sits on it like a little man.  Of course, this chair would need some repairing, why else would someone throw it out.  Not to worry when I have Mr Hubby as my handyman.

Who would have thought that fixing this little chair would take almost one whole day. Hubby had to restring the chair together with rattan strips as well as nail them together. I am rather keen on spray painting the chair to a blue or teal color.  Hubby thinks that I should leave it as it is ... maybe I should check with my CinaBoy what color he wants ...

The Baby Rocking Chair

Different view of the Baby Rocking Chair

Needs repairing

More repairing needed

To use the rattan strip to tie and nail

Love the color, I think would look great on the Baby Rocking Chair

Recycled and Reused Louvers

For this blog post, I will be taking a detour from the House Tour and would like to share with you on some of the wood projects that we have been up to.

Hubby had his eyes set on some louvers that we saw at a lumber yard that recycles old wood items like doors, windows and woods.  These louvers are made out of Chengal wood and is easily about 100 over years old.  Just lifting a 2ft Chengal louver is heavy enough!

What is a louver you ask?  Well, according to Wikipedia, a louver (American English) or louver (British English) is a window blind or shutter with horizontal slats that are angled to admit light and air, but to keep out rain, direct sunshine and noise.  The angle of the slats may be adjustable, usually in blinds and windows or fixed.

In Malaysia, you can find louvers in old colonial houses like those in Kuala Lumpur, Penang & Ipoh.  However, in newer houses, you'll not find them anymore as modern louvers (if any) will be made out of metal.

So Hubby had this idea of covering the air-conditioning compressor area with the 4ft louver we purchased.  He also had the idea of making the smaller louvers as bench legs which were 2ft each for our dinning bench.

An old colonial house with the louvers above the window shutters

Another picture of the colonial louvers

We were deciding on which louvers to choose.
Initially we thought of the louver lying on the floor with the hold in
middle.  We thought of adding in a Nyonya glass but decided against it
as it would be too much work to do.

So in the end we decided on this louver, 4ft and perfect
for the air-conditioning compressor area.

This is the louver that we bought for the air-conditioning compressor area.

Once we brought it home, we had to take out the planks,
sand each one down as well as the frame.

The planks which had about three or four coats of paints over the years.

After sanding down the frame, hubby varnished the frame
and gave it some chemical treatment.

In the end, this is the varnish color that we choose. 

The planks were also varnished and fitted back.

Here is Hubby fixing the louvers onto the air-conditioning compressor area.

Before : The air-conditioning compressor area is empty and open.

After : The air-conditioning compressor area is now covered up with the
beautiful restored and recycled louver.

After : Another after picture of the facade.

Four Panel Doors

One of the features of this house that we liked very much was the four panel French doors.  The outside of these doors were painted white while the inside was painted brown.  As usual, our Contractor advised us to dispose of these doors, trying to convince us that we can't bring back the wood color, that if were to use them again, two of the doors had to be 'dead' doors meaning that it could not be opened.

It was a good thing that Hubby and myself were adamant.  For the past six months, all our weekends were spent sanding down the doors to wood grain.  We had to take the glass panels out, wipe them clean, buy new beading to fix them back and varnish the doors.  We even had to fix the grill ourselves, after ordering the grill from the grill contractors.  The sad part about these four panel French doors is that we had to fix grill, it sort of spoilt the beauty of the four panel French doors.

Here are the progress of our four panel French doors.

BEFORE : The four panel French door before the renovation

AFTER : The four panel French door after the renovation

The four panel French door after renovation, sand down to wood grain

Hired help varnishing the four panel French doors

The doors taken out and getting ready to sand down

The wood was sanded down to wood grain

Tried using paint remover to remove the white paint at  the beading area.
Not successful, so rather than waste time, we bought new beadings and fixed them.

A close up of the sanding down

Furniture Refurbishment

I have been inspired by a DIY blog called http://www.younghouselove.com/

They are a husband and wife team that does a lot of DIY projects around their  house.  The best part is that they share their secrets and ideas.

I have been picking up some furniture that people have thrown out of their house.  They seem to be in good condition, and unique in design.  They just looks a little old and worn out.

Here are three rattan chairs that I have found and brought home.  Rattan chair ONE is rather common in design, but I liked it and it is comfortable to sit on.  Rattan chair TWO was picked up from the same rubbish dump as Rattan chair ONE three months later.  Rattan chair THREE was found sitting outside opposite a house which was near to our new home.  

With all these three chairs, what I did was spray paint them in white, changed the cushion cover for one chair, bought a cushion for RM10.00 for another and left the one empty.

The condition of Rattan Chair ONE which was found at a rubbish dump

After a few repairs and a coat of white spray paint, this chair is good to sit on.  No cushion needed.

Rattan Chair TWO was also found at the same rubbish dump as Rattan Chair ONE about three months later.  It's unique in design and heavy too.  Gave it a wash and dried it out in the sun.  Sand paper a few parts too.

Gave it a few coats of white spray paint before it could be finally used.

Bought a cushion for RM10.00 at a local cushion and curtain shop.  It now sits at one of the corner in our living room.

Chair Rattan chair THREE was found outside opposite a house nearby to our new home.  It was ivory in color and the cushion was worn out.

Sand paper some of the sides, gave it a few coats of white spray paint and put a new cloth over the old cushion.  This chair too sits at the corner of the hall

Chronicles of our Main Door

Our main door is now almost complete.  We have hired help to varnish the door and it looks beautiful!  This door has now become a conversation piece in the neighbourhood as well as contractors who have been moving in and out of the house.

Now all is left to do is to fix the glass at the side.  We wanted Nyonya glass but at the very last minute, BTW this is rather norm already coming from our Contractor, he said that Nyonya glass do not come in the size that we want.  He suggested that we go for normal glass and tint it! I am like "What the &%^*???"  Anyway so now we are sourcing for the glass on our own.

So we'll leave you now with the chronicles of how our main door became ...

The chosen Chenggal wood for the main door

Cutting the wood to the desired size

The Master and his hired help

The door frame and the door

The door frame being installed 

The locksmith installing the lock

The modified hinge for the main door

The main door and it's maker

The main door gets a coat of varnish