Cotton Pickin Cute: Up-cycled

I did it! I completed my first re-upholstery project! And boy, was it a dozy.

I had always wanted a dedicated game table. A place to put puzzles together (especially in the winter), that wouldn't leave my dining room table a mess. We bought this table new, several years ago, at a furniture store but I didn't like any of the chairs available so I waited. Kind of a mistake, because later I didn't really have the money to go out and buy what I wanted new.

Well I got it in my head that I was going to find some chairs and just paint them some fun, funky colors and call it a day. You can imagine my excitement when I found these a few days later. I knew if I striped them down I could come close to staining them the same color. And I think I did it. What do you think?

Can you believe that my game table chairs started out like this (see below)?

Eeeekkkk! How nasty and horrible are those? Smelly too. Believe me, more than once did I think I'd made a mistake and should just get rid of them.

I love the modern curves of the chairs. It's so unlike me (and Neil)to like a mid-century style. But the more I looked at these the more I fell in love with them. Can you see the lovely crayon marks on the wood, in the picture above?

Staples, staples and more staples. I think it took me at least a day to remove the staples alone. Man, I couldn't stand touching that stinky, dirty fabric. Luckily it was night time when I picked them up or I may have changed my mind. I thought it was a good idea to wear gloves while removing the fabric. But believe me after all the sanding, staining, sealing, new padding, fabric and foot pads, there is NOTHING OLD about these chairs.

The heat was so bad outside. I keep saying if only it were fall instead of 100 degrees. By the time I did the sealer coat I brought them inside to work on. So not only was my kitchen/dining room in the middle of a remodel but I added my game table chairs to the mix.

I went through a pile of sandpaper on these to get them down to raw wood. Then after I stained them I put on one coat of clear and sanded them again, let them dry, repeat 2 more times. I'm such an impatient person, days of this drying and doing coat after coat was really tough for me. The padding was the most expensive part of the makeover. But that was where my my patience came in handy. The foam was on sale for 50% off at Joanns the next week.

So with fabric and tools in hand I attempted my first ever re-upholstery project.

I was looking for a way to coordinate with my green/brown couch and yet add blue to the room for a light, beachier look.

So are you ready to see the completed project? It's huge for me and I'm giddy with excitement. Over the moon, crazy about the way they turned out. It was all the new inspiration I needed.

I love the way the fabric shows on the back side of the chairs. Just the look I wanted.

I even made the trim to edge them out with. To be honest with you the sanding was the worst for me. Hate it but it was so worth it.

Oh' and I found a great tip to share with you. I absolutely hate to wear gloves when doing projects like staining. But whats worse is having stain on your hands for a week afterward. But guess what? That doesn't ever have to happen again.

My tip of the year (which I found searching the Internet), is vegetable oil. Yep, that's the one, plain old kitchen vegetable oil. Once you've finish staining (for the day) just pour a good bit of vegetable oil in your hands and rub it in. I then wiped it off with a few paper towels, then added some soap and washed really good. That's it. Clean hands! Why am I just finding out about this?

Here's a breakdown on what the project cost me:

4 Chairs - Roadside Kill = Free
Sandpaper = approximately $10.00
Stain, already had from another project = $0.00
Sealer, already had = $0.0
Foam for bottoms and backs = $47.96 (after 50% off)
Fabric = 2.5 yds @ $10.98 per yard = $27.45
Cable Cord for Trim 2 packs @ $5.99 = $11.98
More Staples (already had some) $2.50
Pads for the bottom of chairs = approximately $5.00

That's a grand total of $104.89 for 4 chairs. Not exactly free but not bad for 4 chairs that you could say are brand new from inside out now. That's $26.23 per chair. Where else would I find upholstered chairs for that price?

Well that's it. My very first upholstery project. I don't know what 'start out slow' means. I hope you enjoyed it. I think they look perfect with my new diy starfish/map art, don't you? You can read more about that here.