$20 Chair Make-over.

Yesterday, I promised to share with you another furniture make-over that “sits” to the right of the {dresser}. If you guessed a chair, DING, DING! I’d say you win a prize, but really you just have common sense. I really should have made the clue harder.

So, several months ago I was thrift store shopping with my friend Megan (hi!) and we came across this chair. At $15 it was the perfect price to add to the guest room. The only issue was that it looked like it came straight out of a lawyers office. Not really how you’d want to welcome your guests. Luckily, I had a can of spray paint and the perfect $2 fabric I had snagged way back in { this post }.

If you want to find a chair that you can easily re-cover using fabric and a staple gun, flip the chair over before you buy it and check to see if the seat easily screws out. Trust me, it’ll make the whole project much, much easier.

After I had removed the screws, the back and the seat easily popped out of the chair and I was left with two ugly cushions, and a chair frame ready for painting.

Since the wood of the chair had a smooth finish, I lightly sanded it and first sprayed a coat of primer. This helped the white spray paint to adhere much easier than if I just used the white paint alone. A few coats later and I left it to dry while I re-covered the cushions.

The first step in re-covering the cushions was to remove the old fabric. I simply used pliers to remove all the staples holding the fabric down. Once the fabric was removed, I was left with two bare cushions.

I cut out a large square of fabric, placed the cushion on top, and got to staple gunning! The easiest way to do it is to start with one side, then do the opposite side. That way you can make sure to pull the fabric tightly across the entire cushion.

When it comes to the corners, just pretend like you’re wrapping a present. Pull one side tight and staple, tuck the corner in, and then pull the other side tight and staple.

Once you get everything covered and the chair is dry, start to reassemble! The fabric wasn’t very thick so I was able to feel around to locate the screw holes and push the screws right in to attach the cushions to the chair base.

Here’s the after!

I chose to run my seam on the front of the chair back (follow that?) and am going to add a row of buttons up the seam to add a little more character. It’s on my to-do list, which means we’ll see if I get around to it. This year.

Not a bad make-over for under $20!