Old Chairs Into New!

                                                                                  Photo Buzz Feed

Once the children are back in school, it is never too early to start thinking about the holidays and a little sprucing up!

We saw this great tutorial by tarnsusumpow (BuzzFeed Staff) Nifty (Show) Chelsea Evers (BuzzFeed Staff) and were so impressed with it that we felt we MUST share it!

Those four chairs you see at the top did not always look this way!  In fact, they looked quite awful.  You probably do not recognize them as the chairs that you have seen on the side of the road but we have no doubt that you have seen similar ones that have been picked up by the garbage truck!  Like this one –

Yes, that was the third chair along!  Now, we have your interest, for sure, right?

With just a few, simple steps, you can have a new chair in no time.

Decide on what color you might like to paint the chairs and also on a fabric that you will like on the seats.

Thoroughly clean the chairs and take off the old upholstery, foam, batting and staples.  If your chair seat unscrews, simply unscrew the seat and you can add your new fabric to the top of the old one.

Sand your chair before you paint it.  Even if it does not seem to need sanding, the paint will adhere better.

Prime your chair following the instructions of the primer.  Let dry.  Put at least two coats of your finish coat on top of the primer.  If you want a shiny finish, you want to buy gloss paint, if you want a matte finish, you want a matte paint and if you want somewhere in between, buy a semi gloss paint.

Once your chair is ready, paint-wise, you can start on the fabric part.

You will need batting and foam for the seat.  This can be found at any fabric store.  If you are doing a chair seat that you have unscrewed from the chair, you can simply add the fabric on top of the old.  But, if you feel you want to start anew, pull off the fabric and the batting and foam and put on new.  Place one piece of foam on the chair seat and fill any holes with batting.  Add one or two layers of batting over the entirety of the seat, depending on how soft you want it.

Cut a piece of fabric to fit on the seat.  (About 4″ extra on each of the four sides.  So if your chair is 24″ x 22″, you would cut 28″ x 26″).

Iron your piece of fabric and place on top.  If you are doing the seat that has not been taken off, pull taut and staple in the middle of each side.  Keep stapling around the seat (on the sides) in a straight line until the fabric is well secured.  Once it is stapled, cut a piece of gimp or cording about 4″ longer than you need it to go all the way around.  So if your chair is 24″ x 22″, your piece of gimp would be 96″ (24 + 22 +24 +22 +4).  Using a hot glue gun, glue the gimp or cording onto the sides to cover up the staples.

If you are covering a seat which you have unscrewed, no need for gimp or cording.  Simply cut your fabric (about 4″ extra on each side), iron it well, place it on the floor with the right side of the fabric facing down, place the chair in the middle of the fabric and start stapling in the middle of each side, making sure that the fabric is taut.  These staples will be on the side of the seat that you will not see.  Keep stapling all around making sure that the corners are neatly folded.

Voila – NEW chairs!  A totally NEW look.

We honestly recommend that you try this.  Even if you make a mistake, it is VERY easy to correct it.

Go for it and let us know how you get along.

More joy, for sure.  Joy in the doing and then more joy in the appreciating at the end!