Laundromat Chairs Get Graffiti Art Makeover

I have fond memories from childhood of spending time playing with my younger sister at the laundromat. Mother filled the big machines. And we were transfixed watching the loads of fabrics tumble behind heavy round glass doors. Any extra change was a treasure; for with it, we could purchase candy, gum balls, and tiny trinket toys in plastic bubbles from vending machines. And we sat and played among the rows of laundromat chairs. We pushed rolling baskets around and climbed on the counter tops to help fold towels. It was an adventure to us. As most places were when we were children.

And so when my daughter discovered a set of old laundromat chairs discarded behind a storage shed at the home of her great aunt and uncle we declared she had found a treasure indeed! When they were happy to part with the moss covered, rusty set of chairs we couldn't wait for the project ahead.

And here it is....

*Thank you Don and Marsha. ♥♥

We brought the chairs home in our truck and they sat in the garage for a while before we decided to tackle the job. Covered in dirt, rust, moss and grime from years of exposure to the elements we had our work cut out for us.

Carley was a huge help! 

We used bleach and orange goop and scrubbed, washed, scrubbed and washed again many times.

I believe the Howell brand was a fairly commonly used set of chairs and so after doing a bit of research I was not too worried about ruining any value with an artistic makeover rather than a restoration job.

My ever handy husband was also a great help with power tools. He cut off the broken rusty feet that supported the chair legs and cleaned out the space so that we could epoxy new plastic feet once everything was finished.

I decided to try Rustoleum's Rust Reformer spray paint to coat and protect the metal chair legs since I plan to use them outdoors and I was very happy with the results. *Chairs have been in use for several weeks now and it has rained quite a bit and they are holding up beautifully.



Grab the spray paint it's time for graffiti.

I purchased more than a dozen colors of high quality spray paint and let both my kids join in the fun of making designs and splotches of color all over the chairs.

We added layer upon layer of colors.

We let some paint go on close and thick so it would run and drip. We tried different techniques after checking out videos on youtube about graffiti, lol.

It was a fun process.

Then, as a final touch I decided to add three little letters, one for each chair. It only seemed appropriate since it would sit on the deck of the studio.  " a. r. t."

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