Thursday 14 May 2009

The best things in life are free...

I am sure that most of you are well acquainted with the wonders of Freecycle by now but if not then I urge you to join your local group. The principle is that if you have something that you no longer need be it a piece of furniture or even a cardboard box then instead of throwing it away and adding to landfill sites you can offer it to your local community. That cardboard box might come in very handy to someone moving home for example. We list bits and pieces on there regularly and even freecycled our old Micra rather than scrapping it when the cost of the repairs it needed were more than the value of the car. It went to a budding mechanic who could do the work himself and voila everyone was happy escpecially the environment! It isn't a failsafe system. Some people obviously abuse it and sell goods on and some people ask for things and then never turn up to collect which can be very frustrating if you have waited in. Nonetheless in the balance it is definitely more good than bad.

We have received a number of really useful things from kind freecyclers and I got a number of bits for our wedding from there. This weekend's find was a bit of a coup! We managed to bag four of these Danish style teak chairs.

They need a good sand and re-oiling but I love the shape and they are very comfy. It means we can finally retire the folding wooden Ikea chairs we bought when we moved into our first rented flat together.

My one quandary is the upholstery. I know the black vinyl is very period but I am pretty sure I want to re-cover the seats although I am unusually stumped as to what fabric to chose. We have a through lounge and the dining area is at one end. We have predominantly white walls with the splash of wallpaper on the chimney breast and on one wall by the dining table so it would need to work with this already rather busy pattern. It will definitely require a bit of thought but if anyone has any brainwaves on pattern or colour then please comment away!

7 comments:

  1. what fabulous chairs! Great score!

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  2. They're so fab! What a brilliant shape!! Don't you just love freecycle?!

    You know me I would so probably paint them a bright colour, like red, and upholster them in a clashing colour.

    Bet whatever you decide will be fab :)

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  3. These are great. I love the shape too! And I'm very jealous!! Good old freecycle. We've picked up some fantastic things too...you gotta be quick though!

    As for what to do...hmmm...looking at your black and white wallpaper, I think I'd go for a contrasting bright fabric for reupholstering...maybe with a larger pattern, or a couple of blocks of colour, to balance the business....I love busy anyway! I'm a sucker for yellow, orange and fuscia. Hope you have fun with the project x

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  4. ou could paint the chairs in one of the colours you want to introduce (re last post), and use a white or curtain weight fabric with a pale grey pattern for the cushion. That way, you are brining your wall paper colours, in a muted tone.

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  5. they are a fab find lucky you :-)
    i would personally do a turquoise colour as I am totally into that at the moment but im sure they will look great whatever you do :-)
    Lesley x

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  6. Oh I concur with the deep turquoise idea.

    Although I'm always going to love fuchsia!

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  7. Oh I concur with the deep turquoise idea.

    Although I'm always going to love fuchsia!

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