Chalk Paint Chair Makeover

I had found this lovely little chair at a local thrift shop earlier this summer. I know the seat was ripped and a few worn spots in the frame, but there was nothing else wrong with this chair, it was a solid seat.

First thing I did was remove the upholstered seat, which was just a matter of unscrewing 3 screws from underneath the chair. Then, I was left with the frame and got to work on it first. Since it was such dark wood, I primed the chair frame first using some primer I had on hand…I honestly can’t remember if it was Kilz or Zinsser, because I have both. After the primer, I gave the chair two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White.

Once I had the chair painted, I gave it a light sanding all over, using an extra fine sanding block. Then, I knew I wanted to lightly distress, so I used a piece of 220 sandpaper in certain spots to let the wood peak through.

After the distressing, I wiped the whole chair down to prepare it for a coat of wax.

I used Minwax’s Finishing Paste in Natural. It works like a charm.

Waxing helps protect the paint, and it also highlights all the details, like the distressed spots. Since the frame of the chair was done, I moved on to reupholstering the seat.

I knew when I got this chair that reupholstering would be relatively easy. I always inspect underneath the chairs before buying to see what I’m getting myself into.

I used the flat head screwdriver to loosen the staples and then the pliers to pull them out. This fabric wasn’t stapled too many places, so it was simple.

The foam was in good shape, so I kept it and just got out my fabric. I had bought this Waverly fabric at Lancaster Creative Reuse, for only $1.00.

I flipped the seat over onto the fabric and trimmed the fabric to closer to the size. Then, I went to work stapling…I didn’t take pictures of each step because it was so quick and easy. I always start stapling on one side, go to the opposite side and staple and then do the same on the other two sides. I left the four corners for last so that I could make them nice and tight and eliminate any creases.

The chair itself was technically done as soon as I reattached the seat.

But I had this piece of coordinating fabric that I bought at the same time, so I decided to make a pillow out of it too.

The fabric wasn’t quite large enough to cover a whole pillow, so I used it just for the front. I pulled some cream colored fabric from my stash to use for the back. I was planning to make an envelope style pillow case, so I cut the striped fabric to 16 x 16, which was the size of the pillow. I cut the cream fabric to 16 x 20, so that I would have the extra 4 inches for overlap in the back. I cut the cream fabric in half of 2 – 10″ sections.

So that my envelope seams that would show were finished, I ran a straight stitch (well as straight as I can sew) on one side of each piece of the cream fabric. I laid the fabrics with the right sides in and the two sewn sides overlapping in the middle.