Reupholstered Midcentury Modern Chair Before and After

Becky
by Becky
I found this little midcentury modern rocking chair from a craigslist ad for $40 and fell in love with the clean lines and small scale. It's been a great piece to practice some reupholstery skills on including sewing a boxed cushion and sewing cording.
I also refinished the wood arms by sanding them down to bare wood and then staining and finishing. For my finish coats I used General Finishes water based finish and a dye stain to mix my own toner. Two coats of toner follower by one clear coat resulted in a gorgeously even built up wood tone.
The brass feet were also unfortunately in pretty sad shape so they got a little freshen up with a coat of rustoleum gold leaf spray paint.
Next victims are this lovely little pair or room and board armchairs I picked up on craigslist last week for $50. Any upholstery fabric suggestions?
Becky
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • Carole Carole on Sep 14, 2014
    For a neutral but slightly masculine look you could go with a beige or fawn colour cordurouy fabric and add softness or colour with some throw cushions. For a country look you could go drop cloth or linen look fabric - you could even add a skirt to the chairs. You could go bold with a geometric print fabric and use one chair to jazz up a room with a plain sofa - this could be your statement chair and do the other chair in a different fabric and use it in a bedroom if you have enough space for it. You could replace just the torn bits and try painting the chairs - no new upholstery required except the torn bits. Replace with similar colour/texture fabric so that when you paint, the overall effect is even. Depends if you are keeping or selling and if keeping depends on your décor in your home and your own tastes. If selling - either go neutral for more potential buyers or go wild and hope that someone falls in love with them and will pay through the nose for one of a kind pieces! The latter is a lot riskier option though.
  • Urban Acreage Urban Acreage on Sep 14, 2014
    Gah!! I would have killed to have a chair like that when we were putting together our kiddo's nursery. Fabulous! Nice upholstery job, too!
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