Do you have a chair sitting in your house, or maybe even your garage, that you know has good bones and great style, but the fabric, or the color, or BOTH.. need some help?
I had such a chair.
I saw it out of the corner of my eye, perched on the side of the road as if it were just waiting for me to drive by. I slammed on the brakes, made a quick turn around, paid $10 for it, and stuffed it into the back of my husband’s extremely tiny Saturn. (I still don’t know how I got it in that car… you should have seen me trying to get it out!)
Do you ever buy something and then a few days later, or a few months later think, what was I thinking?
I tend to do this mostly when I bring home garage sale finds. OR, when my husband sees my garage sale finds and asks, “Now what are you planning to do with THAT?”
Well, this chair is a good example of just that. I brought it home and hid it in the kid’s playroom. It really didn’t go with anything in our house, but I loved the curves, the size, the way the legs flared out… I just knew it could be something beautiful.
Eventually, I knew I either needed to sell the chair or do something with it.
Never, and I mean never in a million years did I think I could reupholster a chair! Now, dining chairs are a whole different story, but a chair with fabric… everywhere… eek!
First of all, you must know, I don’t sew. Nope, not a stitch.
So, by now you may be wondering how in the world I could possibly reupholster anything without sewing. Well, I’m about to show you…
The first thing I did was take the seat cushion off. Most chair cushions are held in place with four screws. One in each corner of the bottom of the chair.
Next, I removed the millions of staples holding the fabric in place. MILLIONS… This part probably took an hour and was the most tedious and strenuous task I could have possibly gotten myself into.
Then, I sanded the whole chair down to remove the finish, and painted it white. Once the paint was dry, I lightly brushed on a dark stain to give an aged look. Once that was dry, I lightly distressed the edges and applied a clear furniture wax to protect the finish.
By now, my chair looked like this…
