Chairs 2 and 3

When moving in with a partner, most people have the problem of duplicate belongings. Two beds, 2 TVs, an extra sofa, 20 glasses, 12 coffee cups, it's a great problem to have. When moving across the Atlantic to your first  apartment as a couple after previously living with roommates, you don't have that problem. In fact, we had exactly the opposite problem. We had nothing. To be fair we had some things. I brought a down comforter (the only thing light enough to vacuum pack in my suitcase. P had a full set of ugly brown dishes (which I still use 5 years later), a 2-person love seat, a life sized cardboard Yeti, an outdoor light fixture, a terrible framed poster of abstract 90s styling and two computers. You may notice we were lacking many essentials, we didn't even have a kitchen sink! As i got acquainted to the BYOK philosophy of Germany apartments, we got "lucky" and scored a free kitchen from friends of P's family who were upgrading. You know the catch is we had to remove the kitchen and it was 3.5 hours away. The whole family got on board, thankfully that included an Uncle who is a master carpenter, and we tore that baby out and loaded it into a U-Haul (but of course not because U-Haul is not in Germany). The U-Haul overnighted at P's parents' as we made the drive home to prepare for its arrival the next day. While there, P's mom took the occasion to unload some furniture she thought we could use. Included in this surprise furniture was a pair of bentwood chairs with cane seats. They were well worn with a dark wood stain that had all but been worn off in places. But, they matched each other and they were perfect because we were planning to host Thanksgiving and had a serious shortage of seating. We used them in Braunschweig, we took them with us when we moved to Mannheim and then we packed them up and moved again. They were thrown about, stepped on, left on the balcony, and generally abused. I never gave them a second glance. Then I started getting my found chairs in line and realized these guys could use a good makeover. This weekend, I hand sanded each of them and applied a couple of coats of white lack to each. 

Since the majority of the chair was a round surface, I used a round brush instead of the foam roller. I made this decision based on the photo on the package of brushes/foam rollers I bought. I think I may break out a foam craft brush for a third coat if there any remaining brush strokes when the paint is fully dry but so far it is looking good. In the photos below, you can see the difference between one and two coats. The closest chair has two coats in case that difference was not clear. 

These two babies are still in progress, hopefully I will have a chance to finish them sometime this week. I noticed the last photos I uploaded from my phone were terrible quality. I loved the Polaroid effect thanks to a Retro Camera app but it did not translate well to the blog. These were also taken on my phone without that app. Hopefully they turn out better. I am still waiting for Instagram to make a droid app. So, anyone else engage in any painting projects this weekend? Any chair make overs? I just found some internet inspiration for a whole new type of upcycled chair but I am trying to resist it until I have actual free time. Anyone know when Instagram becomes Droid friendly?