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Do you ever pass furniture and random items that people have put out at the curb for trash pickup? Well, I recommend taking a closer look when that happens and you might find your next cheap and easy project! I’ve started doing this in the last few months and have picked up a coffee table (which just needed some screws tightened to make it like new again), a small desk (which I up-cycled into an entryway bench and garden supply organizer), and most recently, a patio chair.

One of our neighbors put some old patio chairs out at the curb for trash pickup. I spotted them when I was going on a walk. Two of them were pretty worn out, but I discovered that one looked to be worth transforming from trash to treasure.

So that’s what I did!

I carried it back through the neighborhood to my house, fixed it up, and it is now getting some good use in our backyard.

Read on to find out how simple it was to transform my neighbor’s trash into one of our nicest patio chairs.

I hope it encourages you to try some of your own “trash to treasure” projects too!

Trash to Treasure - DIY Patio Chair Transformation

The wrought-iron bones of the chair were in great condition and the wood wasn’t too bad either. It just looked like the wood was discolored and falling off in places. In that condition, it would be unsafe for sitting. But there was no rotting or anything. From what I could tell, the screws just needed to be tightened. I decided I also wanted to paint the wood.

Before

I unscrewed all the wood from the chair, painted the wood, and then screwed it all back together. Easy peasy!

The blue paint gives it that extra pop and makes it the most fun-looking patio chair in our backyard.

After

Frugal Thumb Tip: Look for paint in the mistint section at your local hardware store. You can often get paint at a steep discount because someone returned a color that they didn’t like. I bought the blue paint for this patio chair project at Lowe’s from the mistint section! This time, I got the entire gallon of blue paint for about $7 (-50% off the lowest marked price).

So there you have it! This was a nice like-new patio chair that I refurbished for FREE. You can do projects like this too! Keep your eyes peeled and be creative! You never know what “trash” you’ll come across that can become your next “treasure.”