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$20 Bistro Set

When last I typed, I told of my fabric painting of two wing-back chairs.

I had a little issue....... I ran out of paint.  I remedied the problem and they are now ready to be waxed and will be coming soon.

Almost two weeks later.  Story of my life.

So in the meantime I crossed a few other things off on my to-do list.


I picked up this little bistro set at a garage sale last Fall for a deck off the master bedroom.  I thought I was getting a good deal at $20 for the three piece set.

That is till I bought spray paint.

I decided that a textured look would be fine, and bought a couple cans of the expensive stuff, the rusty iron look or something.

Then I ran out of those two cans.

Tell me please how it could possibly have taken 4 cans of seven dollar spray paint to paint the metal on that set?

The math....
3 piece bistro set...................$20.00
4 cans of $7 spray paint.......$28.00

Whatever... I was too far in at that point to stop.


I finished painting the set and it sat on the deck with no seats for, ummm..... 8 months.

To be fair, 5 of those 8 inactive months they were covered in snow.


The chairs came with two round wood seats that needed to be cushioned.

I am not a cushion-er.

So what I did was buy two square outdoor pillows on clearance and turn them into round tuffets' for the chairs.


First the innards were taken out and the square foam was cut in the shape of the round seat.


Then the man with the stapler took pity on me and attached the outdoor cushion to the wood.


And now I have two chairs we can actually sit on.


I can enjoy a cup of brew on the deck while the mornings and evenings are still cool and the bugs haven't hatched!





29 comments :

  1. Smart lady. That totally worked. Hope the bugs stay away a little longer. Ours have arrived.

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  2. Very pretty set Bliss. :) We were out on patio yesterday at dusk and came in when the gnats came a calling. The nerve of them...
    Hugs, Gee

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  3. I've been on the lookout for a cute (cheap) bistro set like that!! Yours turned out great --even if not so cheap! The cushions look great too!

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  4. I've been looking at bistro sets for about 20 years, no kidding. I still don't know why I haven't bought one, maybe because I've never found a cute set for $20.
    Great find, great makeover, great way to get a man to do something for you - look like a struggling female !

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  5. That turned out beautifully, Bliss...and I love the cushion idea!

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  6. For someone who doesn't know what she's doing, you're doing something right! This looks fab! Not sure about the spray paint thing - 4 cans??? Turned out great though.

    Cheers!

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  7. Turned out beautiful! We use to have a bistro set but sadly it didn't hold up after our last move.

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  8. Ha ha ha. I spray painted a table and chairs for my front porch and couldn't believe how many cans of paint I went through. I was so sick of them by the time I was done, I gave the set away and they REPAINTED them! Your's look great so I'd keep them. Clever girl to make the seats out of cushions!

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  9. Love, love, LOVE that fabric! And spray paint fools you by letting you think it will cover more than it actually will. It's totally sneaky that way. Also, I love how you made a fancy-schmancy watermark for your photos. I might have someone do that for me.

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  10. Great results! I'm getting ready to repaint our metal patio set (table & 4 chairs) so I appreciate knowing how much spray paint it took for yours. I am (was?) considering the textured paint...

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    1. That paint was a thick type, sprays out thick so guess the cans don't hold as much, or it just doesn't go as far. Here is my suggestion...... get ONE can of the thick type and spray it on after an under coat of the same color regular kind in the same or similar color. Too bad I didn't have that hint. I sort of did it in reverse, took a flat brown and touched up all the spots still showing, so really that made 5 cans!

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  11. Furniture like that is tricky to spray paint - totally worth it though! Can I join you for coffee?
    Xo Heidi

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  12. You can get a quart of hammered paint for $7 and have 3/4 left over. The second coat fills in the grooves of the paint brush. The company name starts with an R and ends with an M. For sport, get an electronic flyswatter for the bugs. Hang on to your mug when you start swinging though. Great job.

    La Verne@hopeandsalvage

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  13. I'm looking for a set just like this - so pretty !
    Love your winter setting photo too ( some of the stuff I left out in the yard over the winter have developed the most gorgeous patina :)
    There's quite a few conversations happening over my outdoor decor let me tell you - what I'd really love
    is 3 or 4 of these scattered around the pool area - overkill ? lol
    xox

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  14. Just look at that end result though!
    Do NOT begin to spray paint a wicker loveseat, unless you buy an entire box of the paint and have been doing trigger finger bulking exercises for a couple of months.

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  15. This sounds like one of my projects...I never shared. I hate it when a "cheap" project gets expensive. It looks awesome glad you finally got it done!

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  16. Looks very nice! Finally some weather you can enjoy using it in!

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    1. Ok, OK Bliss. Something's wrong again with the sign on. There, I fixed it :)

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  17. It seems like a lot of my diy genius ideas end up costing more in cash and time than if I just bought the damn thing from store! Like I used to in the olden days before the blog ...

    Oh, I was working then too ...

    :) Linda

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  18. They way they're making patio sets these days, you would have paid twice as much for a set that would fall apart by next Christmas. Yours looks nice and sturdy, not to mention uniquely cool. Love that fabric, too!

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  19. That came out fantastic. Even if the paint cost more, confession I threw out something like that years ago now I'm kicking myself.

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  20. That turned out really nice ... love the color choice and the cushion is beautiful.

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  21. You are so hilarious! You know they also make round cushions but then that would have made sense, right??!!! Plus you were incredibly smart and had the mister handle the dirty work for ya!!! I like your way of thinking!!!.......Lovely set, by the way!!~~Ang

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  22. you know that's a really good way to get the outdoor foam for cheap. Except I guess outdoor foam doesn't do that much good over wood... man I thought genius had struck for just a minute. These look great! I think we all would re-evaluate if we admitted it would take as many cans as it takes to spray paint outdoor furniture!

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  23. That set is lovely now, even if the paint cost more than the set did. You enjoy your coffee...I'll be over with the wine, m'kay?

    -andi

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  24. You crack me up about the cushions, it is great to have a hubby come in a help fix the problem. John has done that a few times for me truth be told. Love the bistro set. My goal is to find an old one which may take years, LOL, but even it is a chair I will be happy. Love the fabric by the way.

    Cynthia

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  25. Looks great! I considered painting my bistro set, but I don't have the patience right now. Think I'm going to put it in my garage sale and get a different one. I certainly don't have the patience for cushion making either! Nice job lady!

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  26. Looks great Bliss! Our bistro chairs round seat pieces rotted. So they are now seat-less chairs. One more thing on the to do list :-/

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  27. I don't know what a set would cost new down there, but up here, for a decent one, it's over $100. So I'd say you are still ahead of the game. And they look fantastic, probably better than a new one would because you customized them! Debbie :)

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