Updated Vintage Metal Glider to a New Porch Swing

Hey friends, I am excited to share a fun post that has been sitting in the wings for years! Today I am joining some of my favorite bloggers to share some up-cycle or repurpose projects and today is one that is close to my heart. Years ago, we were spending some time at my husbands grandmas house and came upon an old, broken vintage metal glider. I instantly fell in love with the old piece of junk, and my husband looked at me like I was crazy. No surprise there, haha. I knew exactly what I wanted to use it for. It was going to be turned into a porch swing.

Before you get mad, this vintage metal glider was beyond repair. It had broken arms and the glider part was rusted out. Really all we had to work with was the metal seat.

We actually worked on this project just before starting my blog and I failed to take a before picture, but I was able to find a glider that was like ours, but in much better shape. In fact, ours did not have the metal arms anymore. We were left with some small wooden arms and were broken.

We up-cycled this old, rusted vintage metal glider into the perfect cozy porch swing perfect for relaxing on.

The goal was to take the metal seat off the vintage metal glider and use it as a porch swing. The seat was in great shape, other than some rust and definite sun fading, but we could work with that.

My husband disassembled the glider and then went to work figuring out how to turn this into a cozy porch swing for us to enjoy. The metal seat was solid, but it needed some sort of frame to keep it solid in the air.

We ended up building a frame of sorts by using two by four lumber that would firm up the seat. In the pictures below you can see how my husband created some framing along the back and bottom of the seat and used the current bolts as a point to secure them s that he did not need to drill any other holes in the metal.

He also added a piece of wood the edges of the seat to give it a finished look. We cut and sanded them to match the curve of the seat.

The last thing he did was drill 4 holes that we could hang the chains from that would hold the swing int he air. We went with some heavy duty chains to make sure this thing would be sturdy and stable. We drilled the holes and then added hooks that we could then hook the chains to. It was a balancing act making sure we got the chains to hang at the right length, and with the right amount of links, because if one was off by one link, it would lay crooked or too far back. But, that was an easy fix.

After we had it all assembled and knew it was structurally sound, I decided it needed a good paint job. I went with white, because…why not right? If you have seen any of my porch posts, you may have seen this porch hanging in the background.

We up-cycled this old, rusted vintage metal glider into the perfect cozy porch swing perfect for relaxing on.

This was the original color, and it was really great, but I wanted something a bit more fitting with my decor.

Here it is on my porch. This is by far the most cozy place to sit and relax on a warm day. It is always shaded, protected by the winds, and is surrounded by fluttering quaking aspen trees. It is the most heavenly place to be.

Here are a couple images of our vintage metal glider turned porch swing in action:

Over the years it has served it purpose as my favorite place to land. It has changed its look through pillows and throw blankets and it is just long enough to lay down on and take a nap. It really is quite convenient

We love to repurpose and recycle items. We do this so often I forget to even share them. In our time at our home, we have repurposed old windows, beams, bicycle wheels, pallets, wooden spools, light fixtures, and so much more. It is important to give old things a new life. I love that we can hold on to a small piece of my husbands family history with this metal glider. I can just see his grandma sitting on that vintage metal glider when it was in its prime.

That is the beauty of up-cycling. You are guaranteed to have something with a story you will never know, and that is kind of the charm of it all.