Turning $5 into summer relaxation

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a nearby neighbor's yard sale and bought a couple of wicker chairs and a wicker table for just $5.

But I will be the first to admit that I didn't really know if it was a great purchase, or not. The seats were sagging, some of the wicker was barely hanging on, and they were a sorry shade of gray. They were dirty and mildewed, but as I reached in my purse to get the $5, I found myself giving a pep talk--to me. I was telling myself that if I had to take these chairs to the dump, I would only be out $5. I had wasted $5 before and this could really fill a need we had.

The back story is that during an ice storm this past winter, a large pine had fallen on our deck, destroying our entire patio set. Thankfully our deck receive only minor damage but we had nothing to sit out on in the evenings when our deck was shady. Also, we had to replace three sets of doors that open onto the deck, so our budget wouldn't stretch for a new patio set. Not this year.

That all worked together to make the very sad-looking wicker set look more attractive to me. When I got them home, my husband was skeptical that I could repair and restore the set for use at all, though $5 wasn't so much to waste. He said I was on my own in this one.

I knew I didn't want to spend too mush on restoration and I didn't even take a before photo because the set just looked too bad.

To fix it up, I bought some high tack wood glue and made some repairs with glue. I then reinforced the seat bottoms with wire. I knew that paint would most likely cover the wire and I was right. I bought some spray paint and sprayed the chairs and then added a coat of leftover white enamel exterior paint, leftover from the painting the doors. This I added with a brush.

When I was finished, I was pleased, but my husband was elated. He just couldn't believe they looked so much better.

We purchased cushions for about $10 each and we are very happy with the results. If this furniture will last until next year when we will probably be able to replace it with a new set, we will feel that the $5, plus supplies and cushions will have been worth the price and the effort.

The only chore we have left now is to paint the deck and we can have our morning coffee in our new chairs and we can also sit out while watching the grill with a glass of mint tea. It doesn't get much better or much cheaper!