Hello Sunflowers,
When in college life is full of changes, and those changes also extend to living conditions and furniture unfortunately. As of this summer my house went from a nice dining room set with 8 chairs to one with 4 chairs. 3 of which are broken. Something had to be done. So I went on a quest to find us chairs. I went to all sorts of thrift stores (and met all sorts of people) and frequented Goodwills. I ended up finding 7 chairs and a wing chair that we used for the head of the table. Also, if you live in a college town, beware. Chairs in a college town were ten dollars while the same quality (some even better) in a town about 40 min drive away were five to six dollars. So I started out with the thrift chair:
I then went shopping! At most fabric stores they will also have a small section of spray paint. I would normally grab a few fun colors that I felt I could really work with. I then headed over to the fabric section and hunted down the patterns that I liked and that matched the color. It's best to find the paint color first because there are far fewer paint options then fabric and it's heartbreaking to find the perfect fabric only to discover that there isn't paint anywhere near that shade. Usually getting a yard of fabric is enough to comfortably reupholster any dining room sized chair. There will be extra fabric but better safe then sorry. It's also best not to buy the spray paint at the fabric store. In my experience, Jo Ann Fabric store sells a bottle of spray paint for 8 dollars, Walmart sells the exact same brand for just over 3 dollars. The best brand by far is this:
We are so used to false advertising in our society that it is hard to believe when a company delivers what they promise. It takes two whole bottle of any other brand of spray paint to paint a chair and only one of these, and you have a bit left over. I don't know how they did it, but it's magical. Once you get all of your supplies home you are going to want to unscrew the seat of the chair from the frame. If you are painting the frame outside in the grass, it's best to put paper plates under each foot or some cardboard from an old shoebox or product. This keeps the grass from getting in the way of painting the bottom of the chair feet and keeps the grass from being smothered in paint.
Be careful to shake the bottle really well and also start painting off the chair and then move the line of the spray onto the chair. If you are too close to the chair the paint will start to build up and drip down, which is no bueno.
Once the chair is painted it's time to reupholster! You can take off the old fabric on the seat of the chair if you wish or you can leave it on, either works fine. I usually make sure the fabric is nice and lined up how I like (make sure you have enough fabric on all sides to staple before you start) and then staple in one side.
I then pull the opposite side as tightly as I can and staple. I work around the whole seat in this fashion. Then I grab some scissors and cut off all the excess fabric, making sure to leave a bit just so the staples won't come out too easily.
Once I have let the chair dry for a few hours (rather safe than sorry!) I bring the chair in and drill the seat back into it. Tada!
You now have a cheap and beautiful chair to make your home sparkle a little more :)
Hope you all enjoyed my project and if any of my steps were confusing or you have suggestions as to how these methods could become better, please let us know in the comments.
Wishing you all smiles and happiness,
Victoria
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