Thrift Store Chair DIY
We all know how expensive a good chair can be and how much stuff just gets thrown out. Well, a simple solution to both these problems is upcycling furniture you either have or find at your local thrift store as I did! I know upholstering a chair sounds daunting but it can be done easily. I am no upholsterer so if I can make this old chair look like new you can too!
The first thing I always think about when I see chairs or any other furniture I want to upholster is the shape. Being that I am not great at this I always look for furniture that has easy square shapes that I know I can easily wrap up like a present! When I saw the chair pictured below I noticed there was a slight bend in the back but it was so slight I knew I could handle it. If this is the first chair you have ever worked on maybe stick to straight lines or go ahead and be adventurous and one with all the curves!
The second thing to think about when shopping for furniture is how does the item come apart. you want to make sure that the item comes apart enough that you can successfully upholster or paint around the legs and arms of the chair or item. When I say this chair I made sure to check under the seat and back to see how it was put together and luckily it was just a few screws to take it all apart!
The Third part I the fun part, how to design it! When I saw this chair I instantly envisioned some muted floral pattern and a fresh coat of paint on the wooden parts. I went to my local fabric store, Fancy Tiger Crafts, and spent some time touching fabrics and see what would fit best for my vision. In addition to how the fabric looks and feels it's important to see how I stretch. Since we are going to be pulling fabric very tight across a surface and then sitting on it you want to make sure it has so elasticity too but not so much that when you staple or nail the fabric to the item it starts to leave little rips or seems. For this chair, I used 2 yards of fabric and it was just the right amount!
Now that the furniture is picked and the design is ready it's time to take it apart! For this chair, I first took a flat head screwdriver and started removing the stables that held the black fabric to the bottom of the seat. I set this fabric aside to be used again at the end since it was still in good shape. If your fabric is in bad shape just make sure to buy enough new fabric to also cover the bottom. Now that the screws of the chair are exposed I unscrewed the legs and back carefully noting which screws went where so I don’t have issues when I put it back together.
Since I wanted to paint the wood parts of the chair I made sure to do this first so while it dries I can be upholstering the other parts of the chair. For the paint, I just used matte black spray paint and it took one coat to cover since the wood was already dark. When upholstering your chair depending on how clean the fabric is or if you don’t know where it came from you can remove the olf fabric and padding but for this chair, I was already clean and in good shape so I decide to upholster over the current fabric to save time. I simply put the seat of the chair on the fabric off to one side and made a trace to cut out. When cutting out your fabric you can either trace the old fabric you take off or just the shape of the item. If your tracing the shape of the item make sure there is enough fabric to wrap the sides comfortably. Once all the fabric was cut I used a staple gun to secure it and all that was left was putting it back together! I really loved how the final chair turned out and it only took a couple of hours mostly because I was waiting for the paint to dry!
I hope this article was helpful and gave you the confidence to DIY a thrift store find yourself!
