My Weekend in Chairs

 

 

 

As quite a few of you have left comments and sent me emails asking how I was going to revamp the chairs I thought I would dedicate a whole post of pictures to my method.

 

  We were lucky we inherited these good solid chairs from Lovely Hubby's Mum, Jessie, so they are filled with memories for him of growing up in the family home in Peebles.  Jessie came from a generation that kept it's furniture, didn't chop and change with fashion, simply bought what they needed after saving long and hard for it and then it stayed in the family and we are now lucky enough to have these as our 'forever dining chairs'.  As they were they didn't fit in with our style or taste, but that can so easily be altered.  The chairs may have changed but the memories are still there.

 

If you don't already have a  set of chairs to revamp this style of chair can be bought so cheaply in secondhand shops, I've even seen them being sold off for as little as £2 each at the end of car boot sales.  I got my material from Dunelm Mill from the reduced section, it cost me £28.50, but you could use any fabric that you have spare in the house.  Old jeans are brilliant for upholstering seat pads and they look fantastic and wear really well.

 

The top pictures shows the tools you need, I also used 1/4 of a tin of satin paint and 1/4 tin of grey undercoat, 2 paintbrushes, 1 large sheet of sandpaper, a damp cloth, thin pieces of foam and new fabric - nothing else required.

 

 

 

Take your chair.

 

 

 

Pop out the seat pad, a good thump from underneath is usually all you need.

 

 

 

Rub down with sandpaper then wipe with a damp cloth to get rid of all the dust.  Undercoat each chair, leave them overnight to dry, then lightly sand and wipe with a damp cloth again, this gives you a nice smooth surface for your top coat.  Paint with your chosen colour.  Leave overnight again to dry.

 

If you are happy with the coverage that's it, (I  was), if it looks a little patchy simply sand, wipe and give them all another coat of paint.

 

 

 

While the paint is drying you can now get on with the re upholstery of the seat pads.

 

Carefully remove the leather or old fabric, trying to get at least one of them off in one piece.  Use the wooden seat as a guide to cut out your foam.

 

 

 

 

 Use the old seat cover to cut out your new piece of fabric.

 

 

Make sure your fabric is good side down, place the foam and then the wooden seat on top if it.

 

 

 

 

Stretch the fabric round the wooden seat.  Secure with drawing pins at each side.

 

 

 

 

When you are happy with the tension, go round adding as many more pins as you need to hold the fabric securely.

 

 

 

Take time to do your corners, pulling the fabric neatly and pinning securely.

 

 

Ta Da.   Finished chair.

 

 

 

Our Summer look.

 

 

 

And I bought enough fabric for our Winter look. 

 

I thought it would make the kitchen nice and cosy, I also thought the fabric tied in nicely with our colour scheme and has a nod of tartan about it to remind the chairs that they are from Scotland.

 

 

Before

 

 

After.

 

Lovely Hubby said I had done such a good job he would go and buy some chairs from a car boot sale for me to renovate and sell ....... my words to him were completely unprintable on here!! 

 

 I won't lie it was a long and fiddly job, the painting of chairs is even worse for me than painting  window frames, you seem to have so many sides and awkward bits, but the finished article is well worth the effort.  I'm really pleased with these and they should last us a lifetime.

 

Now I'm off for a final sort through of all my clothes and the spare room, we are doing our final car boot of the season on Sunday and I want to be as clear as possible in the house.

 

Sue xx