Thursday, January 5, 2012

DIY: First furniture makeover!

You. Guys.

My DIY heart *finally* knows the feeling of a dramatic makeover!
My parents and I went to Goodwill one day two weeks ago (completely not looking for chairs) only to find this beautiful Louis XVI chair (leaving with said chair.) AND it was marked down - to $5! FIVE DOLLARS. The frugal part of me was simply over the moon. I didn't even know the chair was marked down until I got to the register (it had a $10 price tag - still a deal.) A lover of Goodwill, I will be frequenting there more often because there was also this **fabulous** sofa that I didn't want to pay $75 for, but totally would have paid $37 for. It was gorgeous. Just like this, but an awful green color. A product of my future dream house for sure after a little makeover. 

Anyhow, onto the makeover.
I should probably first say that this is my first time making over a chair. There are probably things I could have done differently... but now that I've done one, I know there will be a next time to make those changes!

First we ripped the cording off around the seat & back. We thought about taking the seats off, but decided not to before we got in too over our heads.

Then we sanded down the paint a bit. We ended up spray painting it (using Rust-oleum Ultra Coverage in Satin Ivory Silk.) I'm not sure how smart spray painting is... but they appear fine (and even weathered a trip from Texas to Oklahoma.) The sanding helped to make sure the paint would stick.


As I said, we didn't take off the cushions - we simply stapled the fabric I bought over it. After working with the chairs a bit, I actually think they had been made over once before and done in a similar way that we ended up doing them. We hot glued the braided cord around the edges. Originally we had bought a more rope-like cord, but being the first-timers we are, we improperly measured and didn't get enough. And then could not find it again at any craft states on the other side of the border! Ugh! But I ended up liking the braided more than I thought.


Voila! Can I just tell you how much I am in LOVE with the pattern? I saw it at Joanns and could not stop smiling. I just love all the colors so much! I unfortunately didn't get the name of it, but I know it is a Waverly Fabric. The braided lining we got at Hancock Fabrics. Oh and best thing about my chair is that I didn't get one, but TWO! They actually had 4 at the store, but I settled on two to accommodate the living space I have. Also, I have no idea why the carpet looks so mustardy in the second picture...




My first made over chair, and I couldn't be happier. A fun little addition to my dorm room for sure!

I paid $10 total for both chairs, about $19 for all the fabric (twas on sale!) and about $25 for the braided liner (oof.) But overall I consider $54 a good deal for these super cute chairs.

Have any tips for the next time I go on a re-do adventure? Let me know!

8 comments:

  1. This is SO adorable! I've been wanting to find some chairs to redo for our house office and living room! Awesome job! I need to check goodwill more often.

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  2. these are darling! i bought two chairs for $5 each months ago, but I've been too chicken to work on them. thanks for inspiring me to go for it!!

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  3. Very cool Erikah! Very very cool!! im in love with that chair!!

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  4. Thank y'all!

    Amanda - I can't wait to see how they turn out :)!

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  5. Thanks for the tips for redoing a chair. The before and after make it look like a completely different chair.

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  6. If this is your first transformation , I can not imagine how good will the next. Congratulations!

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  7. What a beautiful transformation. It is so elegant, I love it!

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