Deconstructed Inspired Vintage Chair

Irma | mycreativekneads
by Irma | mycreativekneads
6 Materials
$15
8 Hours
Medium

My free Vintage office chair makeover that literally cost about $15 to make. Now I have a Restoration Hardware (RH) inspired chair without the high cost of RH!

Old, ugly, velvet no more!

Isn’t it awesome when you come across a not so pretty piece of furniture that was free and you know you can give it new life! That’s exactly what happened when I came across an antique store that was closing its doors. I went in looking for glassware and on my way out, I saw this chair. The owner of the shop asked me if I liked it. I told him I did and can see it getting a facelift. He told me, “Take, it’s yours, have fun”. Score!!! I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. This was now going to be my RH inspired deconstructed guest room chair. I was not going to let the tufts scare me 😳 either!

Chair back and cane arms

This is what the back and arms looked like. I was originally going to remove the cane sides but decided that I’d use them to work in my favor. You will see later what I mean by this. My first job was to remove the fabric. I wish I would’ve taken a photo of what it looked like when I pulled the fabric off but I was too excited to get it finished and forgot! The underlying fabric was more like a foam and it wasn’t in bad condition so I ended up reupholstering it instead of starting from scratch and buying new material. Why reinvent the wheel right icon I also chose to sand off the original finish instead of painting it because I thought it would give it a more distressed and deconstructed look.

Burlap lining

I lined the bottom cushion and the sides of the arms with burlap because after all, isn’t burlap a must when creating that deconstructed look icon I also glued the twine to the edges along the burlap and the chair.

When burlap and twine meet.

Here’s a closer look of the burlap and the twine. I love the look the two create. In this photo you can also see a sneak peak of the painters cloth and the antique brass hammered nailheads I used.

Tufts tufts and more tufts!

I took the existing buttons of the chair and covered them with burlap. I did this by hot gluing the burlap to the buttons. I then placed them in the exact location where they originally were. This was easy because all I had to do was insert them through the fabric and into the foam. I made sure to secure them tightly so I could achieve a nice tufted look. I think they turned out great!

Nail-heads

A close up of the antique brass nail-heads I used. All you need to do is hammer them where you want them. It’s truly that easy! The close up also shows the raw wood. I opted to sand off the majority of the original finish because I wanted to create that deconstructed finish.

The arms and back, cane no more.

See, I used the cane to make my life easier. I first applied the burlap on both sides of the arms by hot gluing it to the chair and then I tacked it with twine. So easy! For the back of the chair, I glued the jute trim first from the front of the chair, and then glued the burlap over it. The seams were not visible since I reupholstered the front foam with the painters cloth.

Front view

Here is a photo of the front of the chair. As you can see, I used the burlap for the bottom of the chair seat, the arms and the buttons.

Before and after

Views of my before and after.

Voila!

It doesn’t look like the same chair does it? I love how it turned out, it’s soft, simple but lovely, I think! icon If you’d like to see more of what I do, come visit me at https://www.instagram.com/mycreativekneads/

Jute trim and nail-heads

Here is a closer look of the jute trim and the nail-heads I used. They both come in various colors but these were my picks!

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  1 question
  • Mary Mary on Aug 30, 2019

    Hi Irma! Love your chair. You did an awesome DIY! Here is a picture of my small antique chair. Could I use the same method on this?

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  • Sue30746319 Sue30746319 on Sep 02, 2020

    Hi, you did a terrific restoration.

    I was wondering how you treated the

    wood frame? Did you apply a wood stripper? Or is that a stain?


    • Irma | mycreativekneads Irma | mycreativekneads on Sep 02, 2020

      Thank you so much! I actually just sanded it but not to completely remove the existing stain. I liked some of it peeking through 💕

  • Ceci AG Ceci AG on Mar 10, 2021

    Nicely done!

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