Magazine Rack Refinishing (or Reupholstering?)

Found this magazine rack at a garage sale today for $5. It was so ugly it may as well have had "Janet's a sucker" spray painted on it. I brought it home and immediately cut the fabric from the frame--I would have disassembled the frame but all the screws had been stripped and it was not coming apart.

I put the frame out back with an old tablecloth. When I came back two seconds later with a can of spray paint, this is what I saw. Seriously. Why do they do that?

I spray painted it a gloss black, and while it was drying, went to the fabric store and found a replacement. I laid the old fabric out on my dining room table and cut the new fabric to fit the size, not worrying about the handle holes. I hate sewing so much that when I want to tackle a project that involves my sewing machine, I usually don't worry about such trivial matters as measuring, or matching the thread to the fabric, or anything that involves basting. I just want to get it done, and fast.


So, using brown thread on my black, white, and turquoise fabric because that was what was already in the bobbin, I hemmed all four sides of my rectangle and then folded it over the frame. Fabric strips on the bottom had to be hand-sewn because of the aforementioned stripped screws that prevented me from taking apart the frame. Ditto for the fabric folded over the top of the frame.

This project took no more than two hours from start to finish (FAST!) and I decided to put my new rack next to our entry pew to hold shoes. Even though the closet is literally one step away from our staircase, there are shoes lying on the bottom step every single day. A cute new shoe rack will certainly solve the problem. Right? I know. But it looks darn good.