Potential, do you see it?

In a recent post I mentioned that a certain view of my yard might be changing after a project I had planned for the weekend. Well, that project has not happened yet. It's started, but hasn't progressed enough for me to show you that part of the yard again. Here's how it got going though...

See this tired old boxspring? It's been in my basement for a while for two reasons: first, I hate adding things to the landfill if I don't have to. Second, I saw in this boxspring not a useless piece of trash ready for bulky item collection day, but the potential for a new feature in the garden.

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I have to admit that one or all of the cats that I've owned over the past 15 years or so helped me realize the potential in this worn-out bedding. You see, over the years they had bitten or clawed at one of the seams, causing a strip of welt (edging) to come loose and hang down a bit.

As I was carrying this awkward mass to the basement I stepped on this dangling cord and ripped a few feet of the seam open, which allowed me to see inside:

What do you see? I see a fancy new garden trellis!

I only need to free it from its bedroom-intended bonds. Let the ripping begin!

Removal of the bottom and side fabrics resulted in many pokey staples which I decided to remove with pliers before I cost myself an urgent care clinic co-pay:

The batting (not sure if that's the right word -- the thick support material) under the top fabric was held on to the frame with a sort of staple:

These required some plier effort to twist off, but when they were all removed I had a nice sheet of some funky material for a future project:

I'm not sure what the point of all of the colored threads are, except maybe as recycled filler? They're quite fun though, aren't they?

Now that all of the fabric is removed, it's just metal grid attached to wooden frame, and those staples look a lot more heavy duty:

Fortunately they pried out with only a moderate amount of difficulty, and like a black swallowtail butterfly from a chrysalis, my trellis had emerged:

After this I took a little break, then repeated the process on the second boxspring. If you want to see how that progressed, just scroll back up and read this post again -- it was exactly the same procedure. Well, it went a bit faster as I was now an experienced trellis releaser.

The next step was to be painting, then installing in the garden.

I was just too hot and tired to do it though. 

Perhaps this weekend? I'll let you know...

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