SCA: Camp Furniture Makeover

 So, this folding camp chair was pretty cool.  I bought  a regular old nylon camp chair at Walmart in 2019, removed the nylon covers, spray-painted the frame and the tray, and replaced the covers with pretty fabric, to make it look a little less modern and make it blend in with the wooden camp furniture a little better. Brown spray paint isn't going to fool anyone; but when you place the chair amongst all the wooden furniture, it at least looks a little less plastic-y.  

However, in March, the stitching on one corner of the back piece on this chair gave out and nearly dropped me on the ground at an event - I ended up shoring it up with safety pins in order to keep using it.  

Time for a new cover!  This time it's made from some dark green cotton damask upholstery fabric I had in my stash: 

(the back is the same as the seat and arms; the light is just making it look weird)

Hopefully this will hold me at least another four years.  Maybe by then I'll have built myself a wooden folding chair.  HA!  Yeah, right.  

A Quick Camp Makeover

Remember the fold-up camping cot I  bought in November?

Yes, this one: 

I took a page from Pinterest (at which no one was suprised), and made a pillow-mat for it, with a gathered skirt to hide the legs:

That's a bed sheet, a shower curtain, and a couple of bottles of Rit dye, baby.  Can't beat free. ;)

The back is split and edged with some blanket binding ribbon I had lying around; the pillows just pop right out so the cover can be washed.

At BAM in November I threw a sheet over this thing and set it up under the big, company pavilion, and people really enjoyed having a lounge space.  Now they have a comfier and and more attractive one. :)

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So, About That Chair...

You know, this morning on my way to work I wrote this entire post in limerick form.  Thankfully, before I got to a keyboard I thought, "Hm, maybe I'd better have some coffee and think this through."
You're welcome.

Before! 

After! 

• spray paint (paint + prime in one, and also a spray polycrylic clear-coat)
• new fabric  (scraps from an old tablecloth and runner set, which is why the design isn't centered)

Ta-da!  Easy. 

This chair was given to me by a friend, and I very much prefer it over the "regular" folding camp chairs that everyone tries to disguise with slipcovers made of thrift store bedsheets (to which: ew; ymmv).  Far more comfortable to sit in, doesn't hurt my back, easier to get out of, has never broken beneath me and dropped me on my ass (which always seems to happen in front of cute guys, have you noticed that?)  

One day I will have pretty wooden chairs with pretty throw cushions.  But for now, I'm loving this thing SO very much.  :) 

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Bits 'N' Pieces For the Camp

Not that I even have a whole camp thing going on just yet.  I will, but grand plans for pavilions and things can wait - for today, I have a wee bit of furniture re-upholstery to show you. Two wee bits, actually.

Before:  a little footstool, $5 at Goodwill.  (They threw the ugly in for free). 

After: A $2 scrap of upholstery velvet I bought from a friend's fabric sale, and some gimp left over from a previous project.  

No, it isn't remotely period. But it's a cute, and useful little thing.  The legs won't even be noticed amongst all the other stuff that I hope will eventually make up one hell of an awesome, lush campsite decor.

Before: Look, it's a 15th century plastic beer cooler!  No, wait...

After: Now it's an ottoman!  Storage and extra seating, how about that?  Props to my friend Kate, from whom I stole the idea. :) 










I do plan to build a pavilion this Winter (to have ready by Gulf Wars in March), but first there's all manner of little things like this to take care of:  cushions and chair covers and tables, oh, boy! 


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