Super excited to share one of my Pinterest inspirations today! Last week Jon and I hosted Thanksgiving at the lake house for the first time for his family. It was the first time grandma and grandpa weren't hosting and we wanted to make sure we kept the family feel but updated a few things with a fresher look. My nit-pick was the folding chairs.
Well a couple weeks ago I was failing miserably at convincing Jon to get new folding chairs and can the old ones when it hit me I could probably paint them and do it myself. A few hours that evening on Pinterest ad a couple trips to Joann to get some fabric swab samples and we locked on a palette and fabric!
If you want really good instructions I recommend you check out this blog. What I'll cover below are some surprises and lessons learned (the hard way from me so you don't have to!).
I found the kit at one of our many runs to Walmart. It's the closest store to the lake house AND they sold purple tools?!! (disclaimer: could not find the product URL online for purchase, looks like in-store only).
The bottoms as shown in My Fabulous Life's blog true to form has some sort of flat head/plastic molly screw in them. Cutting them off was one of the most time-consuming parts for me. Mainly because I was down a thumb (mandolin washing accident). Definitely use wire cutters or a hack saw or some sort!
2. Reupholstering The Cushions
Don't bother removing the old fabric unless it's beyond gross. Takes too much time! To reupholster the chairs you're going to need a staple gun. Sigh, I hate to say this- but a pink or baby blue staple gun will fail you miserably especially if they're not heavy duty. I got halfway through the chairs before the thing broke in half. Pouting and disheartened, (and whiny) Jon finally resolved my dilemma and grabbed this bad boy #2 for the garage (thank you grandpa for having awesome tools).
1. Removing The Old Cushions
Sounds easy right? Most blog instructions state to simply unscrew and voila! If you have metal folding chairs with cushions at the back, those are easy- a Phillips #2 will do. Or you can get one of these bad boys (in purple!) that comes with a cordless drill and it will go much quicker.I found the kit at one of our many runs to Walmart. It's the closest store to the lake house AND they sold purple tools?!! (disclaimer: could not find the product URL online for purchase, looks like in-store only).
The bottoms as shown in My Fabulous Life's blog true to form has some sort of flat head/plastic molly screw in them. Cutting them off was one of the most time-consuming parts for me. Mainly because I was down a thumb (mandolin washing accident). Definitely use wire cutters or a hack saw or some sort!
2. Reupholstering The Cushions
Don't bother removing the old fabric unless it's beyond gross. Takes too much time! To reupholster the chairs you're going to need a staple gun. Sigh, I hate to say this- but a pink or baby blue staple gun will fail you miserably especially if they're not heavy duty. I got halfway through the chairs before the thing broke in half. Pouting and disheartened, (and whiny) Jon finally resolved my dilemma and grabbed this bad boy #2 for the garage (thank you grandpa for having awesome tools).
During several trips into town I tried desperately to convince Jon to get a new staple gun that was more my style and was convinced this one was also broken. After getting sick of hearing me whine and a quick Google search, he promptly pointed out it was user-error on my end and I was not putting enough weight on the staple gun to staple properly. Slightly embarrassing! Having the right tools will make re-upholstering a breeze.
I use much less fabric than was advised and ended up using about 19"x19" for the bottom cushion and 19" x 10" for the back cushion. Make sure that if your fabric has patterns both the continue in the same direction on both cushions. I had no issues with this but can definitely see this being a blind spot on the project.
3. The Paint Job
Use lots of drop cloth. I ended up using a two 9'x12' drop cloths to cover my workspace. If I could do this over again I would do this in dead heat of summer. When it's cold enough to snow (and it did) is not a good time. Alas I painted in the garage and moved everything back to the house when it was dry so it wasn't painful.
I set the chairs with primer (used a little less than half a can to partially coat 8 chairs) and it seemed to be plenty. The color I chose was Rust-Oleum Gloss in deep blue. It added a nice contrast to the fabric.
4. Putting Everything Back Together
Use a drill to reattach the bottom cushion to the chairs! The blog I referenced earlier used one inch screws but I went down to a half because they were shorter. Drill straight through those molly screws you clipped off and it will make your chairs quite secure. And here's a look at the finished product!
