Do you have a set of cane chairs that has lost its sheen and natural color? Wondering if you should give it a new lease of life or just give it away to somebody?

I had a cane furniture set comprising 4 chairs + 1 table + 2 side tables that were over 5 years old. One look at them and you’ll know they had seen better days. During a recent moving exercise from a BIG house to a smaller apartment, I gave away 2 chairs, the center table and the side tables. However, I retained 2 chairs for use as balcony furniture in the new place. One day while scouting the net, I was inspired to give these chairs a new look.

Before Painting : Cane Chair

You have two choices while restoring old cane furniture: giving it a polished look while retaining the natural color or painting it in a different color to complement the surroundings.

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The first shelf of the wooden cabinet in my dining room is stuffed with old newspapers.  Every night, after the  entire family has read,  I deposit the paper in its designated place.  Once the shelf has no room for any more paper, which is usually once a month, or sometimes a little longer, I bundle it and sell the pile at the neighboring old-paper-wala.

Last week, I stumbled upon a project in CraftStylish on how to make a basket from a newspaper. I couldn’t wait to get started on a project that required no fancy stuff and made use of a simple thing as a newspaper. It was more of an evening project and I worked on it while the rest of the family watched TV. It took me about 30 minutes to make the basket from scratch to finish. ..

Base of the newspaper basket

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