Craigslist Chair - Deconstructed and Reconstructed

I monitor the free page on my local Craigslist site daily. I am always looking for a piece of solid wood furniture, pretty much for any part of the house, that needs cleaning and TLC. One day recently, I hit the jackpot. I dragged my brother across town to pick up this chair. I got so excited that I didn't even take a before picture.

It was covered in pet hair, and the cushions were kind of dingy. The rubber webbing for the seat was cracked, dry, and broken in a few spots. Not a problem, because I planned to paint the frame, pull out the rubber webbing and replace it with jute, and make new cushions. Easy peasy!

Fast forward to a year later. I dragged the chair in off the enclosed porch and pulled off the dry, cracked webbing. No problem...EXCEPT that the hammer-wielding demons who put the chair together put in cheap staples and nails that were not removable. I tried to pull them out and the heads came right off the nails.

Crap. So we went to plan B. Kevin did some research and promised me that vinegar (in the spray bottle pictured below) would dissolve the wood glue holding the strips of wood ruined by nails and staples. I sprayed and scraped, sprayed and hammered, sprayed and mopped the living room floor (oops) over the course of one afternoon and then I was able to hammer the pieces loose. You can see one piece on the towel below and the other waiting to meet its end.

Eventually I got the pieces of wood off and bought an eight-foot 1x3 from Home Depot for $1.27. I had the guy cut it in half so it would fit in Thor, my Civic. At home, I measured the chair and cut two pieces, 23 inches each, with my trusty $5 toolbox saw. Yep, while wearing flip-flops and a dress.

I used this thingamabobber -  that I bought for a dollar at a yard sale because a lady should have tools, even if she doesn't know what they are called, exactly, really, or at all - did the job of shaving a bit off one end of the board to make it fit in the slot in the chair. The piece of wood I was replacing was narrower.

This part of the project, cutting, fitting and installing the replacement board, took less than an hour. I could have kept it to 30 minutes, except one of the screws hit a knot in the new wood and I stripped the head and had to go rummaging for wood screws.

I had very few choices, but the smaller one worked.

BUT I managed to outdo my own personal rule that every project takes 3 trips to the hardware store. I got this done in just one trip to the HD for wood!

This is starting to look like a chair! I am really excited to buy some jute strapping (next time I get a Jo-Ann's coupon) and then I have to track down foam and fabric for the cushions. Reading chair, here I come!