Reupholstered French Chairs

My first venture into upholstery and furniture refinishing continues!

When I saw these two dining chairs I thought they were adorable and would be an excellent project. I love the "bones" of these chairs, the turned-wood legs and arms and the nice design on the back of the chair.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep these white or paint them a bold color so I decided to find a fabric I liked first, then let the fabric dictate the paint choice.

The fabric I found was Waverly Modern Essentials "Solar Flare". I purchased this fabric from JoAnn's Fabrics. One yard was enough to cover both seats, and of course I waited for the 50% sale!

Waverly Modern Essentials "Solar Flare"

The "before" picture! (care of a Craigslist seller)

I found the chairs on Craigslist, $35 for the pair. They had a pale blue toile fabric that was stained and the paint job was a little sloppy and beat-up. There were only the two chairs, not a full set of six, but the chairs are so interesting that I think they make cute accent chairs, even if they aren't used for dining chairs. They could be an office chair or extra living room chair, or a new chair for my craft room.

The first thing I did was unscrew the seat, sand down the frames, dab on primer and then add a few fresh coats of white satin spray paint.

1 coat of primer, 2-4 coats of spray paint, 2 coats of Wipe-On Poly

The previous painter had clearly only sprayed the chair from the top down and missed a lot of spots on the legs so the first couple of coats I sprayed on while the chairs were upside-down.

When I removed the blue toile fabric I actually discovered the seats had been red velvet before that and even before the red velvet they had been this ugly brown cotton weave fabric.

I left the first two layers of fabric on since they had been nailed on; the blue toile had been stapled on so it was easy to remove with a flat-head screwdriver and needle-nose pliers.

I covered the red velvet with a layer of cotton quilting batting and then laid my fun fabric on top of the batting. Lacking a staple gun, I used upholstery nails to take the fabric in place.

The extra batting made the seat a little thicker so I ended up having to buy longer screws to attach the seats back in place.

The "after" picture!