So whilst enjoying this summers wonderful (ahem) british weather, i got the DIY bug and started hunting around the parents house to find things to craft/make/or refurbish in an attempt to keep me occupied..........
.....and I came across this old beauty. So with a quick check with the folks i headed off into my DIY adventure.
(I’d just like to say that i am no professional and i have not had any training in this department, it is all self taught or from helping my dad.)
(This chair has been in my family for god knows how long, but as you can see it was definitely in need of a spruce up!)
So to start off i needed to get prepared.
I collected all of the things i was going to need to complete my project :
L to R: Paintbrush (i had two options, a stiffer brush for applying my primer and a softer bristled brush to gloss with), Large bristled brush (to brush off dust from sanding the chair), Sandpaper and Sanding block, Wipe down cloth (to get rid of any extra stubborn dust), Newspaper (to work over to make clear up easier), New upholstery fabric (to replace original seat cover), Triangular scraper (i didn’t actually use this in the end), White undercoat/primer (to paint a base coat on the wood as it was darker then the gloss paint), Cream gloss paint, Wadding (not pictured, used over original foam) and Staple gun (also not pictured).
So i removed the cushion piece to reveal just the
chair frame, attached some sand paper to my sanding block and started to sand this baby right up.
With any wood furniture that you are painting or refurbishing you will need to sand the piece first. Sand off any varnish or paint to create a rough surface that will grab and hold the new paint/stain on better.
Then after all of the wooden surfaces are sanded down the next step is to prime, prime, prime! (I applied two coats of primer ,with the stiffer paint brush, to really block out the dark wood shade so i wouldn’t have to use as much gloss paint. That way the paint wouldn’t layer up and get too thick and it created a smoother finish.)
Make sure the first coat is completely dry before you apply the second to make sure the coats don’t get to gloopy and thick.
While waiting for the primer coats to completely dry i moved onto recovering the grungy ink stained seat cover.
First off i removed the fabric.
Unfortunately i forgot to take photo’s of these next few stages but basically i just removed all the staples from the underneath base that was holding it in place. Luckily the seat foam is still in pretty good condition so i just added a little extra layer of wadding.
I then placed the seat onto the new, clean fabric. I cut around the seat shape leaving an extra couple of inches all the way around to allow for the fabric to wrap under the seat and be stapled into position.
So heres the before and after shot of the cushion cover. As you can see the fabric wasn’t that much different, but it just needed refreshing so the dirty, worn out brown was changed for a new golden woven fabric.
Once the primer is dry I re-sanded the chair to once again create that rough grabbing surface we all love so much (: Picked up my soft bristled brush and glossed my little heart out.
.....and here’s what the finished product looks like. Rather pretty right?
I can definitely say that my hard work really paid off and i’m so happy with the finished look.
I’m in love with how soft and feminine it now looks and it is such an improvement from the dingy, worn out chair from my childhood.
So to end this post i will give you the little before and after photos side by side so you can see just how much of a transformation process this has been.
Doesn’t it just look so much better? What do you think about this little chair transformation? Would you guys like to see other projects like this?
Let me know by commenting below (:
Thanks for reading, and until next time good luck with all you refurbishing or crafting ideas (:
Louise
xox
