DIY chair

Like I need another project!

That's seriously what went through my mind the morning I happened upon a moving sale on a warm March Friday morning. I saw it. I wanted it. It was dirt cheap. And somehow, despite having a plethora of projects lined up at home, I found it on my front passenger seat for the ride home.

What's done is done. But I wasn't about to let it just sit around in the pile of to-do's in the garage. I knew it would be a fairly simple redo, so I set to work on it last Saturday. One trip to the home improvement store, and I was set with gloss white spray paint and a gloss enamel spray.

The rest of the materials I had at home, but if you want a quick weekend project, here's a comprehensive list of the things you'll need to have:

chair
sandpaper
spray paint
enamel spray
thin cotton batting cut 6" wider and longer than the size of your chair pad
upholstery fabric cut the same as the batting
staple gun
staples

The first thing I did was sand down the whole chair. You want to give the paint something to adhere to. I bought spray paint that was meant for wood furniture. Then wipe down the whole chair with a damp cloth and allow it to dry.

{my husband wanted to make sure you all knew I was having fun}

Next, start spraying. Follow the directions on the can and just keep applying light coats. I would spend a minute spraying then walk away for 20 minutes, and come back to it. Over and over until it was fully coated.

The next day I had my dear husband tighten up this antique beauty so it wasn't wobbly. Then I went to do one final coat of paint. That's when we hit a snafoo. For some reason, the paint decided to bubble up in random areas of the chair. To this day I have no idea what cause it, but it did set me back. My husband had out his belt sander so he took pity on me in my ranting state and sanded down all the troublesome spots. He even repainted and applied the enamel spray for me! {he knows my love language is acts of service}

While the chair was in the stages of drying I worked on reupholstering the cushion. The fabric that was on there wasn't awful, but I wanted something more classic and shabby-chic looking. I had batting and fabric on hand already to use {what fabric lover doesn't have an enormous stash just waiting to go on a chair seat??} I took the batting and stapled it right over the old fabric. I didn't bother removing the old fabric because there was plenty of room for the seat to slide in and out of the chair so I knew there was room for the extra bulk of more fabric without having to remove the old. You can remove the old if you want to.

Simply staple on the batting, then lay out your fabric and staple that on as well. I took a detail photo of the corner so you can see how I did that. I'm no expert, but I think it turned out great!



Here it is finished!



Once everything on the chair was dry, I popped the seat in and voila! A super cottage-y shabby girly-girl chair perfect for my little princesses room!