Prettying up old lawn chairs at Birdsong Cottage...

Hello friends. We are now home from Birdsong, so I thought that I would share a little of what we did up there last week.

When we bought the place last year, part of what was included were two lovely lawn chairs in the porch. You may recall their ugliness from one of my posts last year, but just in case you are a new reader, here is a glimpse of what they looked like. One was a rocker and one was not, but they were a matched set, with...

...ever so stunning lime green, black,

 and lemon yellow woven plastic cushion

covers. 

If you are in my age group, you may remember

this color scheme from the early 70's.

Perhaps they were original to this old house. 

I mean this old single wide...

And of course, they had "marvy" old, and very pitted,

aluminum frames.

We were initially going to throw them out,

but they served us well during the remodeling last year.

And were ever so comfortable to boot.

I couldn't bear to be the one to disrupt the chain of

ownership of this stunning couple.

So, like any thrifty all-American woman,

I took out the spray paint and let it rip on the frames... 

...using my ever so trusty Rust-Oleum 

in Metallic.

Which is the WalMart's version of the 

Oil-Rubbed Bronze from the home store

(I forget whether Lowe's or Home Depot)...

And for the cushions, I decided to try Annie Sloan

Chalk Paint in Old White.

It was certainly easier than recovering them,

and would fair better in the humidity.

I hope.

Below you see it as I brushed on the first coat.

I really made sure that I 

worked it into all of the mesh...

After I put a second coat on all sides 

of the cushions,voila!

Here is the finished product.

The cushions now look like they have been

covered in duck cloth.

And they are soft and supple... 

The only drawback now is that the cushions

no longer match the charming old green

AstroTurf porch carpeting. 

Do you remember that stuff?

I guess you can't have everything.

Not all at the same time, anyway!

Now doesn't this just make you want to go out and try to find some comfortable old lawn chairs from days past? Have fun looking!