Wednesday, October 14, 2009

My chair makeover

My $3 garage sale chair (I tested the spray paint at the top. The whole chair was all tan/speckly.)
After I removed the seat, and began taking staples out
Beginning to re-upholster the seat. I used an old sweatshirt of my dad's (from the 70's? It had batting in it - odd) to reinforce the cushion and make it look smoother. (It's sitting on 1 out of 2 of my FREE wingback chairs - with an old sheet over it - that I will also eventually reupholster when I have the money for 14+ yards of gorgeous fabric!)
The final seat. This was the skirt I wore to my college graduation. I CLEARLY do not fit in it anymore. Lol. But I love the colors. I want to eventually buy some cool orange fabric, but for now, this will do (and it was free!)(I LOVE using a staple gun. So much POWER! Lol.)
Cedarville University, May 2005
Close-ups of the original finishStripping and sanding: I used Dan's spray stripper (he used it for the bicycle he re-painted) and scrubbed it with steel wool. There was yellow paint under the spotted finish, then white primer under that. I didn't have the time, energy, or amount of spray stripper to take it completely down to the bare wood on the whole thing, so I made it my goal to at least get most of the yellow off.
Primed with left-over tinted primer from painting the basement dark maroon.
After 2-3 coats of glossy black spray paint. I had some left in a can of Krylon, but it ran out before it was covered, so I had to buy another can. We had a gift card to Home Depot, so it ended up being Rustoleum brand instead.
Screwed the seat back in (When I screwed it into the old holes, it wasn't centered! So I re-screwed my own holes to center it.)
Trying it out in the mudroom, it's original intended location. I couldn't decide if I wanted it on the left wall, the right wall, or in the corner. But I ended up not liking it there at all, especially because it would slide every time someone sat in it, and mark up the wall behind it.

Final location: right inside the front door. I love it here because Dan walks in from work, and doesn't have to walk all over the carpet to remove his shoes in his recliner!

One more time...
BEFORE: ugly, faded seat, speckly finish

AFTER: modern, bold, fun print

2 comments:

Jillian said...

You go girl! I'm VERY impressed!

April Watson said...

What a cute chair!! I can't wait until I have the time/energy to do things like that... And thanks for stopping by my blog. I'm so glad you had a good waterbirth experience. I don't think I would ever accidentally tell someone Jack's birth was "fun," but I am so grateful that we were able to use the tub. It was my natural birth-saver, for sure. I know I'll have another waterbirth with our next one, if at all possible. Keep up the fun DIY projects!!