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March 4, 2013

How To Reupholster A Chair: My 10 Best Chair Makeovers


My love for thrift store shopping all started when we first moved into our house three years ago, and I realized I couldn't afford to decorate our entire home with brand new furniture. I began searching for inexpensive ways to furnish our house, and soon learned just how many treasures were waiting to be unearthed at nearby thrift stores. I've transformed a lot of junk in the past few years....old dressers, tables...but my favorite is the chair.  Having zero prior experience in using paint or reupholstering furniture, I slowly taught myself (through trial and error) how to take a junky old chair and turn it into something worthy of using in my home. Today, I'll show you my 10 best chair makeovers, and hopefully leave you with a few ideas on how you can update any old chairs you may have laying around. Enjoy!


10 Chair Makeovers: easy ideas to update old chairs. Check out the before and afters!




How To Reupholster: 10 Ideas for Old Chairs

This is my favorite and most recent upholstery project. I took an old $5 Goodwill piano bench transformed it into a lookalike of my favorite Ballard Designs bench. All it took was a little paint, some striped fabric, and about an hour of my time. See the full story here.

How To Reupholster: 10 Ideas for Old Chairs

A friend of mine found an old rocker at a local estate sale and enlisted my help in painting and reupholstering it. The before and after is pretty drastic. Take a look here.


How To Reupholster: 10 Ideas for Old Chairs

This little blue striped chair was one of my favorite projects to date. My mom picked this up at a local thrift store and gave it to me to reupholster. I absolutely loved the way this chair turned out. You won't believe what it looked like before


How To Reupholster: 10 Ideas for Old Chairs

For this project, I took an old, outdated, wooden stool and upgraded it with some pretty fabric and fringe trim. (I also stenciled and painted the vanity table!). See that story here.



I found this little chair for $5 at Goodwill and totally transformed it using light blue paint (on the wood) and reupholstering the cushion with a tablecloth!! It turned out to be a great, really cheap alternative to upholstery fabric. I finished it off with silver nailheads. See more here.


How To Reupholster: 10 Ideas for Old Chairs

I love this little chair. Months after I reupholstered it the first time, I decided to play with it again. But this time, I did something really different.....I took plain white fabric and painted blue stripes on it. Sanding the fabric (after the paint dried) with fine grit sandpaper was all it took to make this chair soft and comfy. See the full tutorial here.



This little chair is one of my favorite chair projects. See more here.


How To Reupholster: 10 Ideas for Old Chairs

I was ecstatic to find this chair at a thrift store for just a few bucks. Especially when I came home and saw the exact same chair in a Ballard Designs catalog for $400! I gave this chair the same upholstery treatment as  I did the last one, only this time paired with a cute striped pillow! See more here.





Basically, I decided to follow the massive trend of dropcloth upholstery on this chair. And I fell in love. Soon See the full story of this chair here.




Okay, so this one isn't a chair. But, I love it so much that I'm including it anyways. To see how I upholstered my headboard with a dropcloth, visit this post.

Hopefully, I've left you with a few ideas on ways to redo old chairs. If you need specific instructions on how to reupholster, here are a couple great posts about that.



and

How To Reupholster: 10 Ideas for Old Chairs

Have a wonderful week!
Don't forget to pin this post so you have this info when you need it!


10 Chair Makeovers: easy ideas to update old chairs. Check out the before and afters!



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20 comments:

  1. You are marvelous girl. Like talented to the maximal decimal! Love all these chairs..and that headboard? I die!

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  2. Oh wow, those chairs are all gorgeous! You've got some serious talent! I reupholstered my ratty old computer desk chair once. It's super cute and the fabric is awesome, but it took nowhere near as much skill as these beauties! (Here, if you want a little laugh at what I call "upholstering" :-p http://practicallyfunctional.net/2012/08/reupholster-a-desk-chair/)

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  3. You are crazy-pants awesome! I love them all, girl!

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  4. Wow, they are all great. Have you ever tried to recover a lamp shade frame? I would love to learn that one.

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  5. #2 is my personal favorite hehehe

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  6. Wow!! You have that many fabulous refinishes?? I imagine you have a really hard time passing up a chair! Love them! Especially the stripey bench :)

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  7. I love all of these ideas...I pinned this so that I can come back and be re-inspired when I find the perfect chair!

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  8. Girl, I need to get you to come do one of these for me!

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  9. Ok, you really are crazy talented at reupholstering! I've tried a handful of times and while the chairs were slightly improved, not one of mine looked anywhere close to as perfect as yours do! You rock.

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  10. I can't believe after just a short time you have so many '10 Best' projects to line up! You are rockin' it woman! And I have a special place in my heart for chairs too, they come in so many great shapes, and a little paint and new fabric works wonders! :)

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  11. You redo chairs like I change my shoes. Great roundup my friend!

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  12. I can't believe you've actually re-done 10 different chairs! Where do you keep them all?

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  13. I am a chairaholic. I have chairs everywhere! The rocking chair reupholster is perfect for me. I found myself with a bare-bones chair that looks remarkably like yours. Now I can finally upholster it - I couldn't be more thrilled.

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  14. YAY - I'm so glad I'm not the only one with a thing for chairs! My favorite is an old blue one from a school house that I score for $1! LOVE that striped piano bench!

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  15. Seriously, you are the chair upholstering queen! LOVE them all!

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  16. I love your chairs! I'm thinking you are the chair whisperer ;)

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  17. I love chairs and you did an amazing job Virginia :)

    Melanie ♥ ~ www.shabby-memories.blogspot.fr

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  18. These look great, Virginia! Have you done a sofa or loveseat?

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  19. These chairs are absolutely beautiful, I'm hoping to re-do my four kitchen chairs soon. Great ideas, thanks for sharing!

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Thanks so much for leaving a comment!! I do the hammer dance every time I read one.

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