Who loves a good chair redo? Me, that’s who! Broke down chairs are easy to find, and gratification comes quick and easy from a simple coat of paint. Or, you can challenge yourself to a renegade reupholstering job. When all is said and done, you’ll have a one of a kind creation that serves a purpose and tells a tale. I think everyone should makeover a chair today! Here’s some inspiration:
First up: Joelle from
Umbu. I love how she kept a bit of natural wood peeking through and the fact that she used an old skirt to recover it with! Saving the earth with style!
Bree at
Finding Bliss had this chair languishing in her basement for the better part of a year and one day decided on a whim to teach herself how to recover a chair via youtube. Now THAT is inspiring!
Better After reader Rachel sent in this chair redo, wherein she turned that pathetic old chair into a work of art. High five on the recovering Rachel, look how nice and centered the pattern it is! And who doesn’t love damask?
Ronda from
Little Mills Kingdom needed a chair for her piano room, so she found this one online for $29. She bulked up that flat-as-a-pancake cushion and repainted and distressed the frame. This was her first recovering project ever. (Seriously, I need to find whatever youtube channel you guys are watching, because I promise my first attempt at reupholstering something other than a square chair seat would NOT turn out that pretty).
Stacey from
Chronicles of Organized Chaos went with glossy black frames and a bold damask print to permanently pack up and move her chairs out of Dullsville.
I actually kind of liked the color of this chair before, but that tweedy fabric was a little weird. Reader Shiron wanted feminine with a dash of daring and what does that better than animal print? Another first-timer recovering job! Wow!
Eileen at A Creative Day redid this chair for her dining room. It looked like a dining room chair from someplace like Luby’s Cafeteria before. But with a chalky grey paint job and fabric scored from the remnant pile, it’s current and fabulous!
Anita from Nicholas and Anita took a $15 thriftstore chair, $7 worth of fabric, added some manual labor and has a sweet little toile chair to show for it! I’m so impressed, there’s like 30 tufts on that thing, I’d probably have given up after about two!
Kate Lydon from Saturate brought these great chairs up to date with some inexpensive fabric from my boyfriend, IKEA. Before, all you noticed was the worn out fabric and cushion but now they really show off their great mid century mod lines. Extra special redo, because these chairs belonged to her grandmother!
via Design*Sponge
And finally, just to show you that there is no such thing as a chair with no potential…
via Design*Sponge
Isn’t that amazing!
From Andrea, who says, “I brushed with a wire brush from Lowe’s and used a rust resistant primer before painting. I thought it was going to be a very involved process which is why it took me so long to get started, but the rust came off very easily, no chemicals, just a little elbow grease.”
I’m so impressed and inspired.
I might just go find me a chair to makover myself.
Have a happy weekend friends!
20 Comments
marty (A Stroll Thru Life)
May 21, 2010 at 8:51 PMThey all look fabulous. I need that youtube channel too. I can’t believe how great they look. Hugs, Marty
Amanda
May 21, 2010 at 7:03 PMThese are wonderful! I may need to go chair shopping this weekend for a “redo” project — I’ve been inspired!
B Lines
May 21, 2010 at 7:08 PMThose are so freaking cool!! I have to try that, so I am now on the hunt for a chair to redo….
Jennae
May 21, 2010 at 7:23 PMAll of these give me so much hope! I have a Freecycle chair that I have to recover. Ahem…I meant ATTEMPT to recover. This should be…interesting…
But thanks for the inspiration! I needed that 🙂
Pam @ diy Design Fanatic
May 21, 2010 at 8:34 PMWow! Those were great!!!
CrisG in CA
May 21, 2010 at 9:11 PMI NEED that red chair! although all were beautiful.
Rachel
May 21, 2010 at 9:29 PMHey! Thanks for posting my chair! Just so everyone knows, that was the first chair I’ve recovered, so give it a go if you haven’t done one before!
Tonia of Chic Modern Vintage
May 21, 2010 at 9:33 PMWOW, it’s amazing. All of them. I’m working a few chairs this weekend.
Katie
May 22, 2010 at 3:03 AMJust LOVE that second chair!! (the red and white one)
Ann @ makethebestofthings
May 22, 2010 at 5:00 AMThese are all yummy! I kept scrolling up and down trying to pick a favorite and I just can’t. I love them all. Now I’m really looking at my own chairs with a calculating eye. I hope mine will be half as nice when I’m done!
Josée alias amelanche 1
May 22, 2010 at 11:28 AMElles sont toutes belles, j’aime bien la première et les deux dernières. Bravo!!
Bonne journée
Josée xx
BLJ Graves Studio
May 22, 2010 at 3:50 PMThey are all amazing and so inspiring. I have been on the hunt for a chair to makeover for our master bedroom, I am even more inspired now. 🙂
Paula
May 22, 2010 at 7:02 PMWOW! Amazing photo’s! I added your link to my blog – thanks for sharing Paula in Idaho
http://bucketideasforgardening.blogspot.com/
L i z a
May 22, 2010 at 10:29 PMI’m new to your blog and I love it!!
Amazing transformations.
Ann
May 23, 2010 at 2:28 AMahhh I am swooning over that Ikea fabric re-do. Cool. They are all fantastic.
pk @ Room Remix
May 23, 2010 at 4:31 PMI love a good chair makeover, so thanks for the chair extravaganza post! They were fun to see. Hope you’re having a good weekend.
Katie
May 23, 2010 at 4:54 PMI so love these chairs! Love that Ikea fabric! I want that sooooo bad!
Becolorful
May 23, 2010 at 5:38 PMI absolutely LOVED this post. So many different styles so much chair love. In fact I have linked back to this post on my blog for a project I am working on.
Thanks for all that you do. I love the simplicity of your blog and how I can just skim through the images easily and see where and when I need to read more if time allows.
Pam
Laraine Eddington
May 24, 2010 at 4:00 PMI had to sit down in rest in an ugly chair because this post made me feel exhausted 😉
oneinspiredhand
May 25, 2010 at 8:08 PMThose black damask chairs are so cute!!