Thursday 6 August 2015

Chair project!

One of the things I never thought about maternity leave was how boring it could be at times! Now that T sleeps well and naps for about 2 hours over lunchtime, I found I needed lots of little projects to keep me occupied (not being the sort of person that can sit idly and do nothing). 

"Dear husband," I said one day, "Those battered old Ikea chairs, can I try and make them a bit better?"

"Err, well you couldn't make them any worse," replied He. 

So I began!

It took about two weeks to do these chairs, and it was a learn-on-the-job type of experience. So I hereby offer you my guide to "upcycling" (Ugh, hate that expression!) some simple chairs:



Step by step guide to chair makeover

1. Make sure that chair is clean, and remove the cushion unit by turing the chair over and unscrewing it from the chair frame. 





2. I used Annie Sloane chalk paint in Old White to cover these chairs. Thinning the paint down with water and doing two coats worked best. Each chair got a little better with each practice unfortunately! 




3. While you are waiting for the chairs to dry, you can cover the seats. You will need approx 1.5m of fabric (especially if you waste as much as me), some fabric scissors, and a staple gun. 






4. Fold the corners inwards towards the centre of the seat, then overlap each of the edges over it to make a neat corners. Staple the corners in place, then staple along the edges, pulling the material tight (but not too tight) towards the centre. The fabric I used was from John Lewis, unfortunately I can't find it on their website, but it was available in store at about £15/m. You can make the edges neater in a couple of ways - by folding them over, by stapling on tacking ribbon around the edges, or by cutting out another section of fabric to staple on over the top. Admittedly, I left mine as they were as I doubt few people will turn the chairs upside down to check!


5. Once the paint on the chairs has dried, you need to wax them to make the paint last. Do this by applying the wax with a brush all over the wood of the chair then buffing off with a cloth. 



6. When this is completed, you can attach the seats back on the chairs just by turing the chairs back over and screwing them back into place. 


7. Voila! Covered and new chairs. Just looking round the house for my next project now. (Eyes up wooden trunk in the corner of the spare bedroom...)





Have a look at my other projects here




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