Thrift Store Revamp

My recent project was painting and reupholstering two chairs that I found at the Goodwill for $4 a piece.  What I liked about these chairs was the backs.  I immediately pictured them painted in a creamy white color to really make the criss-cross design of the backs pop.

So, I took them home and began the revamping process by unscrewing the bottoms of the chairs and pulling out the old staples.  It turns out these chairs had been reupholstered three times!

Underneath all that fabric was a nasty pile of dust and foam so I scrapped it all and layed down a new layer of foam and batting.

 

The easiest thing to do is place the plywood seat on top of the foam and trim around the edges with a scissors.  I ended up having to use two pieces of foam because of the shape of the chair.  I used a glue gun to glue down the foam pieces to the chair so they won't slip around when sat upon.  I then wrapped a layer of batting around the foam and stapled that down.  Finally I took my fabric and cut it to the size of the seat by laying the seat on top of the fabric and trimming  around the edges leaving about 2 inches of extra fabric. Then I stapled that down on top of the batting.  The key to getting a smooth fit is to pull the fabric tight as you staple your way around the perimeter of the seat.  When it comes to the corners, wrap them as you would a present and staple the overlapping fabric.  You can go back later and trim the excess fabric off if you wish.

 

 

Once I had the seats upholstered I prepped the chairs for painting by sanding them down to create a rough surface for the paint to adhere to.  I then used a spray paint primer, let that dry and did three coats of Rustoleum Heirloom White spray paint.

 

Because this chair had a lot of detail, I went back with a very small brush, sprayed some spray paint into a small container and used that to go through the tight grooves of the chair.

 

  

 

The last step is to attach the seat back to the frame by screwing it back on tightly with a screwdriver.  

Here are the final results!

 

  

{fabric close up}

 

Hope you enjoyed reading this as part of Metamorphosis Monday!