What's Old Is New

 When the hubs and I first moved in together, he was not even a hubs. We were also very recently out of school and very, very broke.  With little money, we relied on the kindness of friends and family and old furniture to make our little apartment a happy home. The thing about old furniture is, it’s generally made well and usually has an attractive design. Add a little paint, a little material and a little elbow grease and you have yourself a one of  a kind piece.

My first DIY furniture project involved some old chairs that my parents purchased when they were first married. I thought the teak was kind of interesting looking, but could not stand the weird black, brown, grey stuck in the early 80’s material that was covering the cushions. A quick trip to the fabric store and I found an awesome heavy duty yellow paisley that was also on sale for like seven dollars a metre (score!). “Sweet!”, I thought to myself, this will be easy.  And it was, relatively.  It was a little labour intensive (mostly due to the fact that I had no idea what I was doing) but, armed with my trusty staple gun, I got the job done.  And I must say, it turned out pretty ok!

I still like the idea of re-using old furniture and making it into something new. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of IKEA going on, but sometimes it’s nice to incorporate older pieces and give them your own personal touch.  Plus, it’s waaaaaaay better for old mother earth if we try to re-use and reinvent rather than constantly discarding and buying new stuff.

If you are looking for more inspiration, one of my most favourite blogs to read has some sweet ideas for giving old, tired furniture a little bit of a makeover.  Check it out here.