Chair Makeover
September 18th, 2007 by Jen LoveThis was one of those projects I put off for 2 years and only took one day to complete: recovering the cushions on our dining room chairs.
Here is one of the chairs previously, with large, off-white cushions, spotted with circles and stains and one year old handprints.
I bought a remnant piece of fabric without measuring the piece or the chair cushions (impulse buy!) but I liked the fabric a lot and it was only $6 for the whole piece. When I got home I saw that it was about 3″ too narrow to work! So I bought brown lining fabric and sewed a 2″ strip onto the right and left sides. This gave me just enough width to fit these very large seats. I bought brown rather than white lining so just in case it showed on the sides it wouldn’t stick out too much. The hardest part was just wrapping the corners and getting it stapled down smoothly. An electric staple gun is a necessity to get the fabric snug with the cushion.
My living, dining, and kitchen are all in one long row in my house so I wanted to choose a fabric that was a little formal and also brought the colors of all these rooms together. What I liked best about this striped fabric was that it had a gold stripe that complements my yellow dining and living room walls, a brown and rust color that match my kitchen, and a little blue and green too to match the living room furniture. I am much happier with what seem like new chairs to me!
September 19th, 2007 at 4:14 am
Fantastic
September 19th, 2007 at 11:05 am
I did this to some cheap Ikea chairs awhile ago. I recovered the cushions and I also spray-painted the boring birch wood gold! Take a look.
September 19th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
This is waaaay too odd.
I have the EXACT same chairs. I too bought fabric a year or so back… and I too just recovered them this month.
I don’t have pix of the before, but can send the after.
September 19th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
what a difference.
looks great.
good job.
September 20th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Great fabric Katie!!
October 10th, 2007 at 7:35 am
[...] Jen Love wrote a fantastic post today on “Chair Makeover”Here’s ONLY a quick extractWhat I liked best about this striped fabric was that it had a gold stripe that complements my yellow dining and living room walls, a brown and rust color that match my kitchen, and a little blue and green too to match the living room … [...]