Since the basement looks so seventies and paneled and… brown, my mom and I have been on a quest to cool it up a bit. (And no, Stepdad STILL won’t let me paint the paneling, much to my chagrin. I am going to have to “accidentally” spill some paint.)

At the top of the list was finding chairs to go around our little round table, because I must admit we have been supremely ghetto and have been using white resin lawn chairs.

I may have gotten a little overzealous in my Craigslisting before the move and sort of forgot that we would need SOME chairs.

Anyway, buying new chairs was out of the question, because we are both relatively broke and ridiculously cheap; so we have been garage sale-ing and scouring Craigslist.

We wound up finding these, a mere three blocks away, for five bucks.

There were five of them, and we took all five.

The chairs themselves were in good shape, but the fabric, which we would be getting rid of anyway, looked heinous.

Close up of heinous fabric for your viewing pleasure:

Thankfully the foam underneath was still in really good shape, so the chairs could be reupholstered.

We removed the cushions and tore off all the old fabric, pulling out a hell of a lot of staples.

We then sanded and painted the chairs, using Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Satin Finish spraypaint in Black.

So far, so good. I probably should have taken photos of the steps as I went along, but I didn’t, so use your imaaaaaaginaaaaation.

We then headed off to Jo-Ann Fabrics and began the exhaustive process of picking out fabric for the chair cushions. Everything I liked was too expensive. Everything my mother liked was too ugly. Finally, after a good two hours, we came to rest upon a nice black and cream paisley-ish looking fabric that was on sale that we both liked. Done.

My mom is the master upholsterer in the family, having learned from my dad, who actually had an upholstery side business at one point in his life. She wielded the staple gun and tugged the fabric this way and that while I watched, so that I’ll be able to do it right the next time.

I then screwed the cushions down into the chairs, and we were in business.

I think they turned out very well.

Here is a closeup of our fabric, which I guess you would call a paisley? I have no idea.

The cats seem to enjoy them.

They look nice around our little table, which we are also going to paint black. Now wouldn’t this all look nice if that hideous brown paneling were a nice cream color?? I think so.

Next we are going to make curtains and cushions for the nasty wicker furniture.

All of this stuff keeps me busy, which is a Very Good Thing.

The J-Man is doing well, by the way. His grades are rising in time for report cards and I let him have a friend spend the night last weekend.

His mother is doing well, too.

Happy Thursday.

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