Mar 3
I wrote a piece recently on cool chairs. It got me to thinking how easy it would be to set up a little business creating really funky chairs out of materials found for free or nearly free just about anywhere. It is a lot easier to find used industrial parts than people realize. Often these parts can be cleaned up, polished, stained or painted and with a little creativity, turned into beautiful pieces of furniture that double as terrific conversation items.
I owned a bar once upon a time and we really bootstrapped it. We were short on start up money and needed a bunch of tables. These tables also had to be quite durable as our clientele tended to drink and carry on quite a bit. I'll admit that it wasn't me but my partner Scott that came up with the idea. Industrial spools. We found a place in Montreal that sold and re-sold huge industrial spools, the kind that can carry a few miles of telephone wire, anywhere from two to ten feet in diameter. We rented a van and went down there. The place was totally fine with us helping ourselves to six spools, each about four feet high and four feet in diameter. We simply sanded them down and applied generous amounts of shellac. They turned out beautifully.
Here are a couple chair ideas. Go exploring your own town and see where you can find discarded wooden window blinds. Cut them to about three feet wide stain and generously clear-coat them. You'll need to cut out a support form which you should find easily enough on the web by searching for 'window blind chair'. Cheap plywood will do the job. Cut the two support forms and glue/nail it all in place. After a few cracks at it you'll end up being able to build wonderfully cool chairs that cost next to nothing and can easily be sold for $100.00. The second is simply an old steel drum. These can be found anywhere for free and only need a good cleaning and some clear coat finish. Take a look at the photo. You only need to make a good cut, cover the edge with rubber edging and add a cheap cushion and some $10.00 legs. Again - this should sell for $100.00 easy.
Hope you use these ideas to expand you're own repertoire of cool designs. See what you can find for free in your neighborhood and let your imagination fly.
Bruce Hollingdrake writes about [
http://theantiquechair.com]Antigue Chairs
and has done a little piece on [
http://hubpages.com/hub/Cool-Chairs]really cool chairs.
Article Source: [
http://EzineArticles.com/?Making-Your-Own-Cool-Tables-and-Chairs&id=3848515] Making Your Own Cool Tables and Chairs