DIY Chair Facelift – New Fabric & Paint

I have been growing sick of our dining room table & chairs for years now. I would’ve  loved to go out and buy all new chairs, but since they are in near perfect condition.. I couldn’t really justify getting all new stuff. Plus I wanted a fun project to do! I decided to brighten them up with a modern fabric and some white paint.

Definitely happy with our new chairs!

Supplies you will need:

• 100 grit sandpaper – You can get away with not sanding your surface if its a flat non- shiny surface
• Purdy paint brushes – they are a little more expensive but they are the best & never leave stray paint brush hairs behind!
• A couple of paint trays
• 1 can oil base primer – Oil based makes for a better finish, lasts a lot longer and is resistant to scratches, etc.
• 1 can latex paint – I chose ultra pure white by Behr
• Paint thinner to remove the oil base primer from your brush

If you plan to recover seat cushions:

• Fabric of your choice
• Staple gun & staples
• Screw driver

Ok so here is what our dining room chairs looked like before……

I started off by giving the chairs a good sanding. I borrowed my mom’s electric sander.. 5 minutes in.. the sander broke!  Awesome. so I sanded the rest by hand.  You don’t have to go crazy sanding, just rough it up and get most of the shine out. The primer will stick better. Make sure to smooth out any imperfections in the wood.

I applied 1 coat of the oil base primer. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Something you should know: the primer is going to look uneven so don’t freak out. That’s kind of the nature of primer.

Once the primer was dry I applied two even thin coats of the latex paint. I had to go over some areas a third time. Two thin coats of paint gives you a better finished look and this way you avoid dripping.

I ordered my chevron stripe white & gray fabric to re-cover the seat cushions here. It only cost me about $25. Not bad for a little chair revamp!

We ripped off the existing yellow & white fabric off the seat cushions. I cut the fabric into squares big enough to cover all sides of the cushion. Then ironed the fabric making sure there were no wrinkles.

After that I basically just wrapped the cushions like a present. I pulled the fabric super tight while Clayton stapled away.

Yay!

Then he screwed all the cushions back on the chairs

Here is a before & after chair transformation!!

I decided to move our jute rug from our living room to the dining room. I am really glad I did. I love it in here! It totally makes the space more cozy. It creates more of a defined dining space. (Frank jumped in the picture too.)

.. and our cat Stewart’s tail snuck in too – they LOVE this rug

Loving the chevron design.. this was such a fun way to update & modernize our chairs

What do you think about our dark wood table? Good contrast with the chairs? Clay thinks we should paint the table too.

I can’t wait for the next project!