I’m a mum and I made my own garden furniture out of broken chairs, it saved us hundreds and looks so expensive
WITH the weather improving, many of us will be scrambling to get our hands on garden furniture in time for barbecue season.
And one mum has found the perfect way to reuse her broken garden chairs - transforming it into a brand new suite.
Helen Bryant, 51, and her husband John, 43, bought their rattan garden furniture back in 2016 with the 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.
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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!”
Helen was keen to hang on to their wedding present if possible.
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She continued: “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.
"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.
The couple even roped in their children to get the project finished.
“Our two younger kids helped with the painting and cutting up some of the rattan so it really was a family activity,” Helen said.
"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.”
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Tom Church, co-founder of , 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.”
