I'm a sucker for a project

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

I'm a sucker for a project

Have just come out of 6 weeks of re-paving work and now I am into something else!

 

These lounge chairs have been a real hit with guests.....of course they don't belong in a garden, they are not outside chairs, they are lounge chairs, but I built an area around them, and almost every guest feels the need to go and sit in them and take a selfie about this dumb arsed host who puts inside chairs outside in a garden!! And they are sooooo comfortable.

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They were never going to stand the test of time, and they have been high maintenance, me having to cover them with plastic every night and any time it looks like rain. 

I always had in mind I would make a couple of concrete lounge chairs out of them, finish them in light grey paving paint and put some really bright scatter cushions on them!

Well today I made a start.......

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Tomorrow, the sides and the back of the first chair (ironically called a 'freedom chair') and I am excited about the finished product now. I am going to have  comfortable red velvet seat cushions and a mass of these bright scatter cushions that I can take in each night....

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I would be lost without a project, some of the ideas are a bit loopy but, as long as guests like them and keep coming....I will keep doing them!

 

Cheers.......Rob

 

 

 

18 Replies 18
Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

@Robin4 Brilliant!!

Will you need to upgrade the legs for extra weight? or is it a thin enough layer to not add much?

 

 

I reminds me of the Starck Bubble chair

 

https://www.lumens.com/bubble-club-chair-by-kartell-R050157.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=PLA&ut...

 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Kelly149 

The legs themselves are okay Kelly because the weight is through the length of them.

What I have had to do is fabricate a steel base plate that the legs are bracketed to. this spreads the load and gets around the problem of the legs tearing themselves from the timber seat base via their fixings.

 

The weight is not bad, the total weight of concrete when it has dried out will not be more than the weight of a small person and the areas other that the seat itself and the arms, the non load-baring  parts will have a quite thin veneer of concrete.

I am thinking and planning as I go Kelly.....it's not the sort of thing you zip down to Ikea and buy, so we will see what happens.

 I will add to this post as I go along so you can see progress!

 

Although I did not want to use cushions with a definite 'image' on them, I did really like this cushion, I want to use it if I can find others that would go with it without clashing! The elephant gives the impression of strength while the legs have a certain 'Aussieness' about them resembling a boomerang.....sort of what we do here....bridging the cultures, I like the feel of it!

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Cheers.......Rob 

 

Lawrene0
Level 10
Florence, Canada

Nice, @Robin4 ! I took a photo last week of a chesterfield you might like in Sintra, Portugal.

Dates from the 8th century, so not a new idea : )

Rob-style furnitureRob-style furniture

 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Lawrene0 

Da*n....here I was thinking I was being a trend setter!

I don't know why but from the very start I always envisioned these two chairs as being in concrete....stings a bit that someone else has beaten me to the punch!

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Cheers........Rob

Lenore22
Level 10
California, United States

I love Sintra! So cool seeing people reference some of your favorite places on such a random post!

I’d have used that on the Camino!

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

You've got to love a good project @Robin4, and this one looks like a fun one. How are you finding adding the concrete and shaping it so far? 

 

I think it's going to looks fab with those cushions, they look happy. 


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Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Lizzie 

It's not difficult to shape the concrete  Lizzie but my main concern is keeping the integrity of it. I can't rush it.....the concrete gains its strength when it is set and if I move the chair around too much I will put cracks in the partly cured concrete......and that would just bugger up the whole project!

I just have to let nature take it course and move from one stage to the next when the concrete will let me. I though it would be dry enough this morning to do a bit more but, have had a look at it an hour or so ago, it feel hard, but the edges are quite crumbly so.....might have to find another project for today!!

 

Cheers........Rob 

Sandra126
Level 10
Daylesford, Australia

Won't the chairs rot under the concrete, and crack? I built some from concrete blocks which I rendered. You could try that, more like sculpture. Interested to see how it goes!

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Sandra126 

Yeah, I did take that into account Sandra, that is why I am coating them fully with a rubberised paving paint when they are finished, I want them to be fully impervious. One chair frame is all hardwood and the other larger one is steel.

Sandra it's all 'make up' stuff, I am doing it by the seat of my pants. There isn't a handbook for doing this, it might be a total flop......we just have to wait and see!

So glad to see you guys over there are getting your lives back!

 

Cheers........Rob

Sandra126
Level 10
Daylesford, Australia

Not quite yet, only regional, and only some things.

Charles224
Level 10
Clare, Australia

@Robin4 Rockford Basket Pressed Shiraz??

I may blast up to visit you at the Mt on my old motorbike to test out those concrete armchairs..and the red..

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Charles224 

 

Ah the Basket Press....a man who knows a nice drop!

Charles, when ever your up for it.....I am!

 

Charles in my working life, I once got an invite to a Rockfords 'Stone Table Dinner'

The Stone Table is a select membership, and I got an invite through a Queensland contact. He was the owner of Colorado clothing.

While waiting for the dinner to commence the participants are corralled in an adjacent part of the Rockfords winery and plied with a vintage Black Shiraz...I am talking about 25 + years vintage!

 

A stone Table dinner is a monthly dinner for members only, and one of their invited guests, 20 participants only in total per dinner. It is one of the most exclusive dinners one can get an invite to. The dining room holds the twenty around one large table......the stone table of course!  There is the hostess who hosts the event and eloquently tells us what we are about to eat and drink. There are four wait staff  for the twenty diners and the kitchen next door with as many chefs  and everything you experience is grown on the Rockfords property on Krondorf Rd in Tanunda.

It was simply the most amazing dining experience I have ever had Charles and I had to come out there with a 2 pack of 97 Black Shiraz......all I could afford! 

Apart from my '93 St Hallett Old Blocks which I  have just described on another thread, here is a  few of my more treasured current gems........

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They have all been kept under refrigeration, and the pity of it is, (with the exception of the Brothers in Arms, they will probably never be drunk now, there is just too much value on them to enjoy the dollars sliding down the throat!

 

The Brothers in Arms however is interesting in that I can't say I have ever been able to put a defined taste to wine....the hint of mulberry, the fruits of the forest floor, the cheeky aroma of French Oak.....nah, to me, its great wine (in varying degrees.....it's average wine.......or it's cask wine. But, the first time I opened a Brothers in Arms and took a sip, the overwhelming sensation in my mouth was....Chocolate. 

At slightly less than 50 bucks a bottle, it is a worthwhile drop Charles!

 

Cheers........Rob

 

 

Nick
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Looking good @Robin4 🙂