Thrifty Couple Turn Broken Rattan Furniture Into Chic New Set, Saving £100s
- Helen Bryant, 51, and John Bryant, 43, noticed their 2016 rattan garden furniture was broken
- The couple did not want to throw it away and buy a new set
- Helen and John repurposed the furniture with the help of Frenchic paint and decking boards from B&Q
If your garden furniture is looking worse for wear, think twice before you throw it out and buy a new garden set.
Helen Bryant, 51, a charity business operations assistant, and John Bryant, 43, a refrigeration engineer, bought their rattan garden furniture back in 2016 from wedding money they were gifted.
The couple, who live in Portchester and have three kids noticed the furniture was beginning to fall apart, but did not want to throw it away and buy a new set.
Instead, Helen and John decided to keep the frame of their furniture and repurpose it with the help of Frenchic paint and decking boards from B&Q.
The transformation cost them £150, representing a saving of hundreds compared to if they had bought new garden furniture.
Helen told money-saving Facebook group DIY On A Budget UK: "We had bought our rattan furniture in the winter of 2016 and we used the money that we were gifted from our wedding in May that year.
"Move on four years and the rattan has started to snap and break causing big holes in the seating area.
"I reached out on a Facebook page to ask for help to see if we could fix the rattan ourselves, nothing came back except people telling me to get rid of it!
"So we had been thinking for another year on what to do with it.
“We desperately wanted to keep it as not only was it a gift, but I thought somehow we could save it from being put in the tip.
“Then our neighbour suggested taking the rattan off to see what the frame was like. So we did this with the small table and discovered the frame was really decent and strong.
“I've used Frenchic paint for a few years now and knew that painting the frame it would look really nice.
“We had different ideas on what to use for the seating area, such as pallet boards, scaffolding boards and composite decking.
“We settled on decking boards from B&Q to cut to size and then we fixed the boards to the frame by using black metal screws that matched the Frenchic paint.
"The pain of the transformation was taking the thousands of small metal staples out which the rattan was fixed to the frame with.
"The best way we found was using a really small screwdriver to hook underneath but this did take forever to take these out.
"We also took forever to decide how to space the decking boards out on the frame so we did this by cutting them to size then trying them out.
"It cost us around £150 for the transformation which included paint, screws and the decking boards.
"We have also reused the cushions that it originally came with; for sitting for any length of time I would recommend using cushions.
“My tips would be to use the small screwdriver and wear gloves and have patience and time. Testing out the boards before ******** them is a really good idea.
"Try not to use half decking boards but use bigger spaces between the boards.
"Having bigger gaps at the back of the seat is fine as the weight tends to be in the middle and front.
“Our two younger kids helped with the painting and cutting up some of the rattan so it really was a family activity.
"We are both so delighted with the end result.
"Not only have we saved something that we wanted to keep but also we have saved something from being disposed off and going to landfill.
"We are really humbled by all the positive comments we have received from everyone who has taken time to comment.
"I posted online as we are so pleased with the end result and wanted to share this idea as I hadn't seen this anywhere else.
“If this just reaches one person to have a look under their rattan to see their frame before disposing of their furniture then we may just help the environment whilst saving a bit of hard earned cash!”
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, comments: “I love Helen and John’s attitude - if more people were like this, we’d see fewer items ending up in landfill!
“Not only have they saved a ton of money on buying a new rattan furniture set, which can be really pricey, but they’ve used their creativity and thriftiness to prolong the life of their existing furniture, which is great for the environment too.”
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