A £5 chair makeover in 60 minutes

Latest project - reupholstering a £5 chair, ultimately cost £11.25 and I have 3 more to do - much cleaner and fresher in the new green colour which is subtle but fits in well with our furniture. Not to mention much more comfortable!

The old set of chairs was purchased second hand and had red coverings but the wadding is very worn which makes sitting in the chairs uncomfortable.

I bought the material, pad and wadding from Dunhelm Mill which is a large household and fabric store. It was lovely to choose the material ourselves rather than buy a modern and expensive chair where this had been decided for us. We chose a thick material which allows more wear and chose a colour which we felt added light to the room and also worked with our table.

It took me around 1 hour as I was unfamiliar with the process but I think now around 45 minutes per chair will do, I might even finish off the pads next weekend.

The next project after that will be to tone down the varnish on all the chairs as I feel it is currently too dark and that make them feel more natural which I think will finish them off nicely.

Some light sandpaper then wire wool and possibly a light varnish may do the trick - I will need to research thoroughly first!

So now not only do we have more comfortable chairs, we also have lighter and prettier chairs for around 4 hours work - roll on next weekend so I can finish them off!

A free find and instant mini bathroom makeover!

Hi everyone - as promised I am posting images of the bathroom cabinet I found and the quick improvement I made. It was just a single mirrored cabinet which needed some cleaning up and TLC and will certainly do us well for now - this is the Before image:

I gave it a good wash and a scrub down, let it dry, then used white glue to use up some remnants of some Cath Kidston wallpaper to at least cover up the badly worn shelves.


I also had some spare satin finish knobs, from when we bought knobs from ebay for the kitchen, so I replaced the small pine knobs that were on the unit with new shiny satin ones which look much nicer.

It is a very basic makeover, but cost nothing whatsoever apart from carrying the unit home and spending some time on it.


The bathroom is now decluttered and brighter as the unit has a mirror and is white so I'm very pleased with the results!