Apartment Therapy reader and designer Christine Schwalm sent in this Before & After. Christine found the chair on the side of the curb and knew she could do something with it. She snapped it up, took it home, and waited until inspiration struck.
Before & After: Curbside Find Chair
Rather than just slap a coat of white paint on the chair, (Don't get us wrong. We love some white paint, but this is a nice change.) Christine used a dark stain. Christine used fabric and a new cushion that she already had on hand. The whole project ended up costing only $5!
Thanks Christine!
We love to see what you can do! Send in your DIY project to newyork(at)apartmenttherapy(dot)com
Comments (34)
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Oh yeah! I was expecting the standard glossy white paint and trellis fabric. This is much more chic.
view Lisa (Montreal)'s profile
great job! I do love the dark stain!
view jessimarie33's profile
I love these B&A- this is a really great one, what a transformation.
view LoriSF's profile
I love this chair! The dark stain and cheetah looking fabric are to die for (and very me)! I have been searching for a chair for bedroom and this rehab would be oh so perfect in my place. I guess I know what I will be thrifting for this weekend!
Great job Christine!
view ellear's profile
I wasn't expecting the "after"! Very nice!
view Michael W.'s profile
gorgeous!
view JBirdHome's profile
Excellent work! One person's junk is another person's treasure!
That old chair in the after picture looks brand new!
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view nthomas00's profile
As someone who hates white paint on wood furniture (I once saw someone do a white paint to a solid mahogany table--why? why? why?), I think you did a great job keeping the integrity of the chair in tact by staining it.
view adiaphane's profile
Beautiful. Great garbage find and so nice to see someone refinish the wood instead of painting it.
view krakencrafts's profile
This looks really good and is an excellent reminder that not all wood has to be painted.
view slowdown's profile
Absolutely love it and wish it were mine! Inspiration like that doesn't strike me nearly enough.
view CyNyC's profile
I love it. It's really well done. Very imaginative. Congratulations, Christine.
view AustinSarah's profile
Very well done! Looks so much better than the all too common coat of white latex paint.
view ButtonBungalow's profile
Great job! I was dreading seeing the after, but it's very nicely done.
view aaakid's profile
that dark stain looks excellent! nice alternative to the usual painted before and afters
view kasiav's profile
Love the stain and fabric. Great job!
view Seaside's profile
I clicked over expecting it to be painted... what a wonderful surprise! It looks amazing.
view cvjn's profile
Oh boy!! I love it!! I was so happy to see someone keep the wood in tact. :)
view puck's profile
Excellent. Upon seeing the first picture I figured there was no way I could like the after - I was wrong. Delightfully wrong.
view Jen C's profile
fabulous - the dark stain and the fabric selection - LOVE it!
view the mem's profile
wow!!! congratulations, that is a wonderful result.
view maike's profile
very nice
view iroh's profile
Thanks so much everyone! It's funny, it never even occurred to me to paint it. I just gave it a light sand and used the walnut stain, pre-treating the light areas so the color would finish evenly.
view queenbee1230's profile
I actually "ooooooed" instead "ohhh-nooooed"
nice job.
view greta's profile
Wow, that dark wood is totally amazing. Funny, the wood looks more vintage in the after picture than the before. And that is rare. Not overly crazy about the animal print, but hey it's not my chair either.
All in all, it looks great. And a steal at $5 in materials...
Impressive work. I, too, DREADED the after picture as I thought it would have some god awful girlie paint scheme and flowery fabric. Again, nice work. Bravo!
view bittergaymark's profile
Well done! Thanks for sharing. (You've inspired more people than you know.)
view MaeEast's profile
THAT I did not expect when I scrolled down... Stunning! You are one clever lady!
view sfteri's profile
Another sell out to the animal print.
view ChrisGal's profile
Good job, well done and economical.
view absOsteele's profile
ChrisGal, I tried other fabrics but nothing else worked as well. I didn't want a solid but anything with too much pattern took away from the details on the chair (like the cane back). Plus, I have quite a bit of other patterns going on so I needed a pseudo neutral.
view queenbee1230's profile
Ooooooooo....wow. Nice!
view muirwoods08's profile
It's just you see animal print over and over and over again any more. It would have been much better to go solid than continue this fad - which will be over in less than a couple years and then you got to redo your work.
view ChrisGal's profile
IMO, well-done animal print falls into the category of a classic.
view muirwoods08's profile
It comes back occasionally, but animal prints do get outdated. Go through history - for awhile they look great, then they look horrible for a decade, and then it's back again. So I take it the OP doesn't mind recovering this chair in a few years when it's out of date again.
view ChrisGal's profile