Friday, May 30, 2008

The Chair

Once upon a time, the Bag Lady's parents had a high chair. To the best of the Bag Lady's knowledge, they used this particular wooden high chair for all four of their children.

In any case, after the Bag Lady's youngest sister outgrew it, the chair languished, forlorn and unused, until one day the Bag Lady's mother decided that said high chair could possibly be pressed into service as a stool for her to use when she tired of standing at her easel. So the Bag Lady's father cut the back and arms off the chair, and with a shiny new coat of paint, the chair started a new life. It was used as a stool when the Bag Lady's mother was painting, and was also used for haircuts and other forms of torture...

Eventually, though, the Bag Lady's mother replaced the old wooden stool with a cushioned chair that had a back and a little swing down step, and the old wooden high chair languished again. It was relegated to the basement work-shop, where it was sadly abused; forced to submit to the indignity of being something to set objects upon when they were being spray-painted, or used to stand upon to reach something on a high shelf.

Time marched on, the Bag Lady's parents both passed away and the chair that had been such a part of the Bag Lady's life came to live in the Cowboy's shop, where it was even more abused than ever! Greasy tractor parts were set upon it; it suffered untold indignities. One day, the Bag Lady realized that if she didn't rescue it, it would collapse or be crushed in some horrific "farm accident"! So the Bag Lady hung the chair up on the wall, then forgot about it again for a couple more years.

This spring, the Bag Lady decided she needed a stool in her kitchen, and suddenly remembered the old wooden high chair. She went out to the shop and took it off the wall and had a good look at it. It was in sad shape. One rung was missing, another was broken, and the paint job looked like a Salvador Dali reject! But the Bag Lady loves a challenge, so she set to work.
Here is what the chair looked like when she took it off the wall:



Here it is from another angle:


Here she has started stripping the old paint off:


And has cut some dowels for new rungs:

After much scraping and sanding and sanding and scraping, the Bag Lady fitted new rungs in place, gave the chair a couple of coats of paint and this is what it looks like now:


She knows that it will be a happy stool now that it has a new lease on life!

Oh, and for anyone who was the least bit dubious of just how seriously sick and pathetic the Bag Lady's hoarding problem really is, here is a photo of the original tray from when the chair was used for feeding small children:
And, if you look at this next photo really closely, you can still see the faint outline of the little bunny decorating the tray!
Have a great weekend!

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

I LOVE THAT.

to me there is something so cool about having "I created this...outta that" around my house especially when the THAT holds memories.

(and yes. you can count all the scrubbing scraping PAINTING as your arm workout :))

M.

Hilary said...

Good work, Baggie. I've never seen such a fine stool sample... I mean.. that seat looks wonderful! What are your plans for the tray?.. because I just KNOW you're not going to let it go to waste.

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a transformation!

Do you do human make-overs as well? I sure could use some stronger, more stable legs and a new coat of paint.

Leah J. Utas said...

dfBag Lady, that was wonderful. Good for you for giving the old high chair a new lease on life.

the Bag Lady said...

Mizfit - thanks! I, too, love having stuff around that I can say I did that... although there are times there's not a chance in hell I'll admit to it! :)

Hilary - I'm not exactly sure what to do with the tray. Perhaps a collage of baby pictures of the 4 of us around the bunny and hang it on the wall...

Crabby - not sure if I can do anything about your legs, but I wield a mean paint brush!

dfLeah - thanks! I hate to see perfectly good stuff go to waste.

Missicat said...

That is great - I love that you still have your old high chair..in my old baby pics, we have one of those metal/aluminum ones that I am sure cannot be used today. How did we ever survive! :-)

the Bag Lady said...

Missicat - I know what you mean - the paint on this old chair was probably loaded with lead....

Geosomin said...

Wow...you did an amazing job repairing that chair!
Isn't it great having things around that are fixed up and useful again? I keep getting Dad to help teach me to build and fix things for us...it just means more to me to have those around.
I think it's hilarious you still have the tray...good to know I'm not married to the only hoarder :)

Unknown said...

You're so creative! That's really cool. It looks great.

the Bag Lady said...

Geosomin - it's a sickness... I have a hard time parting with "stuff" - if you could see all the junk I have stashed away, you'd probably want to do an intervention!
And I love working with wood and fixing things that someone else would just trash.

Sagan - thanks, glad you think so. I had lots of fun doing it, and writing the post, too!

Clare2e said...

It looks so sweet now. I am very anti-clutter and anti- things I'm not using. I'd rather donate or share them or something. However, when it's something so well-loved that can be restored to purposefulness, why wouldn't you? No Velveteen Rabbit for you!

Terrie Farley Moran said...

df Bag lady,

Wow!! Double Wow! You did a great job and isn't it nice to have something around that served you well as a child and can serve you well now.

Your talent knows no bounds.

Terrie

Reb said...

Great job Sis, it looks great! I have one of the chairs that matched that eventually got turned into a shop stool. I keep meaning to fix it up too.

Now, about that tray...

the Bag Lady said...

Clare - Thanks. Now let me look...somewhere there's probably a velveteen rabbit... :)

dfTerrie - thanks! I'm kinda pleased with the way it turned out, and we are always looking for another stool to put around the island when we have company!

Reb - What are you waiting for? :)

JavaChick said...

Nice job! And what a great story.

Anonymous said...

BEAUTIFUL!!! That is just the coolest and I love the life story of this stool. Awesome BL!

the Bag Lady said...

Javachick - thanks. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

Fitarella - glad you enjoyed my "history lesson" :) Thanks for stopping by!

Anonymous said...

wow, you did an amazing job! and I love the fact that it has such history. That makes it so much more valuable!

the Bag Lady said...

Thanks, workout mommy! It is rather special to me. Thanks for stopping by!

Anonymous said...

have a great weekend...

M.

Mamacita Chilena said...

oh my gosh! I can't believe that you were able to resuscitate that and make it look like new. And very cool that the chair holds so much meaning for you.

the Bag Lady said...

Thanks, Mamacita! I'm quite the restorer, eh?! (Hahahahaha)

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

Wow, you did a great job! I wish I had the time and materials to do that!

the Bag Lady said...

Thanks, BG - it was a lot of fun.

Frank Baron said...

Great story Baggie and an even greater deed. The stool has a useful purpose again.

I just wish a couple of dowels and coats of paint could work such wonders with old, broken-down, smelly fisherman types. :)

the Bag Lady said...

Thanks, Frank. I'm sure you still have a few good years of fishing left in you... :) (I'll loan you my stool to sit on!)