Furniture Refurbishment

Here is an update on the two rattan chairs that we brought back from the shrubs in Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam.  We washed, sanded them down and dried both chairs in the sun for a few days.  Both chairs had to be repaired a little, mainly by securing and making them more stable.  We had to remove one of the arm rest for one of chairs as that was not repairable.  This will be our 5th and 6th rattan chair that we have refurbished.

One chair will be for our daughter's study table.  Since we will be spray painting these chairs, our daughter has requested for Mint color.  The other chair is for myself, it will sit nicely at my craft table.  I am thinking of a bright Yellow Lemon color.  All that is left to do now is to find a nice cushion for the chair.

One of the two rattan chairs being
prepped for spray painting

The front view ~ in the process of spray paint

More front view

Side view ~ almost done

From the top and back view

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

DIY Patio

We love the idea of a cosy patio, where we can have breakfast, tea and entertain families and friends.  A patio surrounded by comfortable furniture, lush green plants and beautiful and colorful flowers.  So when Hubby said that the patio will be up before Christmas, I was excited.  Hats off to Hubby who built the patio from scratch.

The wood that we used for our patio is Chengal wood and it is recycled wood.    We acquired some of the wood from a public playground, where the multiplicity council decided to replace wood with high quality plastic, and some wood were purchased from our regular lumber yard, which were also recycled from old kampung houses.

For the roofing, we will be using roof tiles.  Initially, we were contemplating to use glass sheet or poly carbonate glass.  However, we felt that this would not give us that cosy feeling.  We wanted a resort like feeling, and to match the house so we decide to go for roof tiles.  I will save the story of our roof tiles for another blog post.

So here are the chronicles of our DIY Patio ...

Recycled Chengal wood from a public playground.

Our home before the patio

Wood purchase from our regular lumber yard.
We sanded down and varnished the wood.

Hubby cut the edge of the wood for some design.

The wood cut to shape.

The wood is varnished and will be used as beams.

Here Hubby sets the beam.

Beams all set.

One of the pillars is secured to the wall.

The pillars are up.

Another view of the pillars.

Now the beams go up.

The patio is almost done ...
The roof is covered with roof aluminium sheet.
This will act as a cooling function for the patio.

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

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