dyeing a bean bag

I deliberately titled this blog post 'dyeing a bean bag' - because the search on google turned up next to nothing on the subject - so I was flying a bit blind here.

We are undertaking the Great Teenage Room Renovation over these summer holidays.  The new colours for the oldest daughter's room are white, black, aqua and yellow - as opposed to the colours we had painted it when she was a baby (yellow and bright purple - I thought that was quite dashing and daring for a baby room).

We wanted a chair to go in the corner of the room as a sort of relaxation space - but I kept searching and armchairs are, like, expensive.  So I mooched around at council pickup in a neighbouring suburb, vaguely hoping there was a black armchair in perfect condition out the front of someone's house.

No chair - but two perfectly good condition chair shaped bean bags!  They didn't even smell weird.  The only problem was they were mission seventies brown.  I scooped them up and squashed them into the back of the car all over the youngest daughter.  The bean bags muffled her complaints.

I was determined to dye them black to match the colour scheme.  After fierce consultation with the lady at Spotlight I bought some black iPoly dye - one packet for each bean bag cover.

I emptied the beans from the bean bag (NB - do this in the bath so those little pesky yet expensive beans don't fly off everywhere around the house), washed the bean bag covers and then got ready to dye.

Did I mention this is what I did on New Year's Eve?  I know how to PARTAY

Here is the original brown bean bag cover.

Fortunately my massive saucepan that I found at a garage sale a few years ago and picked up to use as a prop one day was the perfect size to fit one bean bag cover on the stovetop.  I am not sure how else you can boil something for one hour as instructed on the packet.

I boiled the dye, the little packet of dye conditioner, about a cup of salt, a saucepan full of water and the bean bag cover for an hour and a half - stirring it all the time (I sacrificed a wooden spoon to the blackness).  It felt quite medieval and smelt.......fairly medieval.

After rinsing it out heaps I dried my now BLACK bean bag cover outside in the fresh air.

 And now it sits in the re-decorated room like it belongs.

Cost - bean bag from council pick up - free!
Dye - about $12
Labour - fun times on the last night of 2013
Sense of smugness - high

Much cheaper than a black armchair.