https://www.remodelaholic.com/fabulous-folding-chair-makeover/
Hello Remodelaholics! Thalita here from The Learner Observer again! You might remember me from the hutch makeover or that time I painted my bathroom tile? I’m so happy to be back to share another DIY project with you today! There is much to love about this makeover, but my favourite thing about it is that it was going to become trash before it was rescued. Isn’t that always a good feeling? Salvaging things from going into a landfill is pretty much the best ever! Rather than letting it go to waste, I paid someone $3 to let me take it off their hands. Yep… $3!
The thing I love about folding chairs is that they are super convenient to have around. In a crunch when you have lots of guests, they can be easily pulled out and don’t take up much space when it’s time to pack them away. They’re also super easy to transport, so you can throw them in your car when someone else is in a pinch and needs extra seating, too! I guess that means there are two things I love about folding chairs…
Anyway, these were not exactly attractive when I found them…
See what I mean? Forest green with plastic seats and back. There were tears and rips on them, and they were super dirty, but that second part was easy to fix. First thing’s first: take the back and seat off.
Better? Not exactly! Next, you’ll want to clean up the chairs. Just a damp cloth did the trick for these because they were mostly just dusty.
The colour I chose to spray paint these beauties is called Champagne Mist by Rustoleum. It took 2 cans because I was covering up a dark colour and didn’t use a primer. Here are the chairs with the first coat on:
They look like they’re well covered up, but believe me, there was a lot of forest green peeking through! Be sure to flip the chairs over to get the bottom parts covered as well because these will be seen from all angles when folded up. I didn’t bother to take the plastic caps off because spray paint also adheres well to plastic, so for now they will stay. They’re easy to replace though, and any home improvement store will have replacement ones in black, white, or other colours.
Get your staple gun and scissors ready!
Now comes the fun part! The fabric! I chose this Marbleized fabric from Tonic Living, which is 100% cotton and perfect for upholstery projects like this. It’s nice and thick and easy to clean – see what I mean when I say perfect? To measure out how much fabric I would need, I laid each piece down on the fabric and cut about 2-3 inches around each one.
Now you can start stapling. be sure to pull tight, and with folding chairs, don’t put the staples too close to the edge because you’ll be able to see them when the chairs are folded up – there’s a bit of a gap between the edges and where the metal sits. The corners can be tricky, but if you fold the fabric over on either side and pull tightly, you won’t have any creases – like this: