Easy And Inexpensive Chair Makeover
Have you ever noticed that someone is always throwing out chairs. I always see them on the side of the road come garbage day. Its like if one chair breaks in a set, the whole set gets thrown out. What a waste. Start picking up those unwanted chairs and turn them into Chíc seating for your home or office.
OK, I am going to be honest here. I found these two beauties at a church garage sale. I couldn’t help but to stop and help support! They were on sale for the great price of just $1 a piece. But if you go out on garbage day, I can just about guarantee you, you will find at least one chair being thrown out. Follow me as I show you how I transformed these into the Chíc chairs they are now. Not only was it so easy but this chair makeover only cost $12 a piece.
Let’s Begin
First we start by turning over the chairs so we can unscrew the seat portion from the frame. I used a long phillips screwdriver for this. There where 4 screws, one on each side of the chair. You can either save these screws and use them when you re-attach the seat (and save a few cents) or you can throw them out and purchase new. I threw mine out, only because they were very rusty and the top of the screws were stripped (worn down so much that the screw driver couldn’t really get a good grip).
The seat portion consisted of a piece of wood for the base and a foam for the middle and then fabric for the top. I reused the wood base and the foam, but if your foam is stained and “compromised” you might just want to get new. I also saved the fabric, you will see why a bit later.
Prepping For Paint
After you have removed the seat from the frame, you want to sand the whole frame down. I accomplished this with my electric sander. You can also do this step with sanding paper and elbow grease. One of my chairs had some tiny holes or indentions. They looked like little teeth marks from a puppy, maybe. So I took some wood filler (for this project I used Elmer’s wood filler, natural color), and filled in the holes. I used a putty knife to push the filler into the holes and to scrape any extra off. You want to have just enough to fill the holes, because after it dries you will sand it down so it is flush with the wood, and the extra filler you have the more sanding you will have to do. As the filler dries it shrinks just a bit, so I did this process twice.
Once you have filled in the holes and sanded down to flush finish, we prepare for paint. You will want to take a lint free rag and wipe down your chairs, making sure to get off all the dust, so your paint will adhere properly. Now, for your chair makeover you can paint your chairs what ever color you desire…. I went with a white chalk paint.
Do you know how many different types of colors of white paint there are out there. It boggles my mind. I think, I took like 3 days trying to decide on which white to go with. Linen white or snow white? Flat or Satin? Chalk paint or non-chalk paint. LOL. But some times those little details matter. I guess. ; )
You can either paint your chairs by hand or you can use an electrical spray painter. I opted to use my electrical spray painter. Then we let dry, and paint again. Do as many coats as you see needed, just be sure to allow the coats to dry sufficiently in between. With these chairs I decided to go for a antique finish, maybe shabby chic look, so I sanded down some of the corners and areas where I felt a used chair would be worn down at. Once, I had my desired look I finished it all off with a coat of polyurethane. This helps to protect all your hard work.
Time To Address The Seat
On to the seat part of this chair makeover. I purchased this gorgeous grey faux fur from Joann’s. The original price was $39.99 a yard. Can you say “oh heck no”. No way was I willing to pay that much for a yard of fabric. Coupon Please! OK, so this is where the old piece of fabric from the chair comes in. I brought the old fabric into the store and used it to measure how much of the new fabric I would need. I made sure I got just enough plus a little bit more to cover the two seats (Extra fabric = Extra $). For this project, I landed up purchasing only 3/4 of a yard and used my 50% off coupon. My final price was $14.99 with out tax. Love it!
I then used the old fabric one more time, as a template to cut my faux fur. I added about a 1/2 inch all around. Better safe than sorry! After my fabric was cut I laid it on my table fur side down and placed the foam and wooden seat base on top. I grabbed the excess fabric on the sides and wrapped it up over and around the base. Then, I took a stapler and stapled the excess fabric to the bottom of the wood base. Next, I cut off any extra fabric.
Now, all that was left for this chair makeover, was to flip the chair frame over and re-attach the seat. This time I used my Ryobi drill. The final price on these two Chíc Faux Fur Chairs was about $22. This includes the price of the purchasing the chairs, the faux fur, 4 screws and a few extra bucks for the paint. I didn’t put the whole price of the paint in the total because I have so much extra left over that I am able to utilize it on many more projects. Also I had already had the filler in my arsenal.
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With Love,
Melissa
P.S. What type of material would you use on you chair makeover? Leave a comment below, I love hearing about your ideas!
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