How I made my Shopping Trolley Chair.

Equipment Used:
Nail Gun
Staple Gun
Glue Gun
Cutting Knife
Sand File or..( A Filer Downer) to me.

'Hasn't it already been done?' NO PLEASE LET ME EXPLAIN.


My first step was to get inspired! I took pictures from the Internet or up cycling gods and goddesses and just look at them see how they do things, do some artist research and get worked up for this hefty project.
Then we all went on a class trip....to Blackburn college skips, except...this has now become weekly and now we get looks.   -_-  Off or fellow students and our teacher was not at all impressed when we asked if we could bring back a kitten.....
(for all you animal lovers, its owner came and is now spending Christmas in a lovely home).
ANYWAYS.....after a few skip hunts i struck gold with a shopping trolley, its been in the back of my mind for a while since stumbling on a picture off the Internet.AND AND....its a Woolworth's Trolley can i get a holler for a vintage trolley?! HOLLER...
I wanted to do mine a little different, no downer on that designer its just i  wanted the tacky side to the trolley, the handles and the pound holder on mind, i never wanted to change the whole look of it, still wanted it to look like a shopping trolley but i didn't want it to look like id just saw it apart, i needed it to be neat and look like a chair aswel, keeping safety priority aswel.

Step two was to just do it. No regrets as Dappy from NDubz says...
I know i know, I'm supposed to meticulously plan it - with tonnes of writing but that's not me...i cant see how it will look until i start chopping away at it and seeing what i can do with it. So Bill gave me the tiniest saw ever, i swear it looked like it came from a Christmas cracker but by my it sawed through the shopping trolley well, i started with the bottom of the shopping trolley, the basket at the bottom, wear you put your toiletries and bleaches to separate from the food, so mama Cobb says. I started sawing with the tiny saw down it leaving enough bum room, to measure the bum room i squatted beside it and put masking tape were my legs started from my bum and kindly asked others to do the same so i could get a general feel for it, the saw'd where the most masking tape was.
One i had cute down both sides all that was left was the bottom, hanging down, this lead to ideas of a reclining shopping trolley chair, with a footrest attached, but it ran short quite a bit and just looked silly so I chopped it off.

And sanding the sharp edges off i decided that the child seat would make the back of the chair a bit bulky so i decided to chop that off with the Christmas cracker saw. Saw'ing it was a task in hand....

After this i decided to add arm rests on the sides. To plan these out i just measured the average arms (10 arms) with masking tape and added it to the trolley as like guidelines. I wanted them to all the way back to the chair but with it being a ready made there was bound to be some complications. At the back of the chair was these really thick steel rods holding the trolley together that i would of had to cut through to make the padding all the Way back so i decided to cut just up from the back. In doing this i had two sharp rods that would stick out so i had to pad it out to the width of the rods to make it safe to sit in.

At this stage i was contemplating taking the bar at the top off with the coin holder. I decided others may not love the aesthetics of it but i loved the fact you could see the Woolworth's sign and the coin holder just makes it a trolley, take those two things away and you lost the real raw aesthetics of the trolley.

To pad the chair out i first went with using loads of old rags and clothing to pad it out but i looked lumpy and horrible so i decided to use old insulation sheets and layer just one an another. I just used a cutting knife to cut it, measured it up to the MDF frame.

Since having this trolley idea Ive wanted it to be upholstered in leather because the toughness of the leather with the steel frame just goes like a harmony... you know what i mean... goes together well. but leather is so expensive so a teeny peasant student so first i used this grey material that i found in textiles but it looked like a hospital wheel chair, grim, so then i faked it with a roll of look-a-like leather from a recycle warehouse. It looks and feels just like leather, no shinny shinny but lush, smooth like Italian leather, i love it.

So i had some spare bits and i don't waste a things so i decided that the basket was perfect size for a foot rest, as i already made the chair leather i kept the strong theme going to the footstool with upholstering that leather too. To make this is used old MDF wood, made a cube and padded it out the same as the chair with the old insulation. Just gluing it on with a glue gun. Once padded out i had the challenge of getting the leather on, i wanted it to look seamless all the way around. We folded it and changed it around and then finally my friend helped me figure it out and we got it t stay, i needed it really tight so got a few volunteers to help me, i tried using a staple gun first but it was too thick so i used a nail gun and nail gun'ed it in, got a little trigger happy and just used loads to make sure it stayed at the bottom.

This wast my easiest but defiantly my best, i enjoyed every minuet of making and designing this and absolutely love the income. I achieved everything i wanted and stuck to my brief as much as i could. I am so impressed with the outcome and think it is original and technical design.