Upcycled Chair to Planter: A Place to Plant Yourself!
by
Megan
5 Materials
On our local Garden Walk, my daughters especially loved the planters made from old chairs. So I promised them we could do one for our house this year!
First, I had to find a chair. So I scoured the curbs on garbage day to find one I liked. As luck would have it, my girlfriend was throwing out this beauty! It was perfect....
The seat wasn't even attached anymore. So the first step was cleaning it up and removing 4 layers of LOVELY upholstery! Thankfully the wood seat was in great condition.
I purchased this exact planter from Big Lots... one less thing to paint! Super Hubby traced it on the wood seat and cut a round-enough hole for the planter to sit down in.
Now, here is where you should take some time to prep. Probably take more time than I did. Sand it a little, rough up the surface. I was in a hurry and I skipped those steps. Best case scenario: It weathers to look old and vintage in a few years. Worst case scenario: I redo it in different colors in a few years!
I used a Rustoleum 2x Ultra Cover Paint + Primer which claims to have primer right in it. I don't know about that, but I know it has better coverage than any other spray paint I have used. I chose a bright yellow for the chair - My house is a pale yellow with purple trim, and I wanted it to stand out against both the house color and the purple door it was going in front of.
I painted the cut seat purple for contrast. Then I hand painted the details of the chair in matching purples. Eventually the whole "flower" cut out on the back of the chair was painted in purple as well. Please, pardon my not so great small detail work. I knew it would be out in the garden and getting weathered, so I didn't want to spend too much time on it. It will mostly be seen from a distance any way! LOL! I really just wanted to highlight some of the more interesting parts.
I did seal the hand painting with a clear sealer so it has a little lasting power.
To finish it, I dropped the basket planter in. Since it didn't have a lip to sit above the hole, I used 4 link sections of the chain it came with and wrapped it around the basket edge and secured it with screws. The basket kind of "hangs" in the hole.
Then I planted a nice hosta in it (hostas are my go to because I don't have much of a green thumb!).
Now the chair pretties up a nice, unused side porch!
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Check out my patriotic chair planter!!!
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I love it Megan! And might I add that your picture of yourself is darling. I love your color choice too...so uplifting...
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Nice job and very pretty although I would have gone with a different color scheme but this goes well with your house. I made one of these years ago with a wood and wicker café chair I got at a yard sale for little of nothing. The seat on my chair was round and since I was going to be using my chair on our covered deck I opted for using silk flowers and greenery. Loved that I never had to water, or replace live flowers and could change out the flowers to fit the seasons. I also added a small birdhouse and welcome sign both on wooden skewers mixed in the floral arrangement. I left my chair in it's natural colors which went well with our stained deck and didn't have to worry about having the paint peel, chip or fade over time. I used a large plastic bowl to embed in the seat with wire support screwed into the underside of the wood seat frame and just filled my bowl with dirt to hold my floral arrangement in then covered the dirt with moss. Was so pretty with my deck furniture and made me smile every time I looked out there. Could see it from our French doors in the kitchen dining nook as well as most anywhere in our back yard.
Love the ease of this project and the crafty way you repurposed the chair. Creative. Thanks for the inspiration.