Dining Chair Makeover With Paint and Upholstery

These six chairs are super well-made and sturdy; they just needed a little update. My client (Allison) wasn’t very fond of the wood color, and she was ready to ditch the style-less black vinyl seat fabric. These chairs had me at hello with their curvy legs and detailed backs. They didn’t need a single repair. There is not so much as a little creak when you sit on them. So I went straight into a light sanding, and painting with Dixie Belle Chalk Mineral Paint in Gravel Road. I sanded lightly between 2 coats, and when they were dry I did a medium distress around all those details. Covering the orange wood tone and knots really let the chairs shine. Allison chose her fabric online on the fabric.com website. This is a great place for sourcing fabric. You can narrow your search by color or pattern, and there are tons of options and reasonable prices. She sent me several pictures before she settled on this muted pattern with reds and creams. I think it is beautiful, and lends an old-world look to the chairs, which matches up perfectly with the table. The upholstery was pretty simple. I removed the seats, and left the old fabric intact. It wasn’t soiled or loose, so I decided to go right over it to save time and extra labor. I cut the new fabric to size, leaving a couple extra inches all around to fold around the bottom and staple. I ironed it to make sure there weren’t any funky creases or wrinkles in the finished product. I thought about centering the fabric design on each seat, but decided a random arrangement looked better. Then it was just a matter of pulling the fabric taut and stapling it into place. I used an electric staple gun, and ¼” staples. Lastly, I trimmed off any excess fabric with scissors, and screwed the seats back on.