Before & After: Folding Chairs

By now you all must know about my latest project.

Thanks for all the sweet words and comments about it! I really appreciate it! You’ve made me a very happy lady.

 

I’ve received many questions about the dining room chairs and I’m here to share all about it!

Since I had a small budget, but still needed to get some sort of dining room set up I needed to think creatively.

 

Originally I had searched craigslist for dining set options, but came up empty handed. I thought of buying something new at IKEA, but it would have eaten up the majority of my budget.

 

I went to many many many thrift stores, but the dining set options were still pretty pricey. All of them at least $100 and sets of chairs were coming up at $60.

 

I finally found one thrift store that had 4 matching chairs at 5.99 each! A dream, right?

 

Only problem was that they were folding chairs and not exactly chic.

 

Here is a shot of one of them all cleaned up:

 

My first thoughts were to slipcover them, but due to my lack of sewing skills and no $$$ for my seamstress I went another way and turned them into this:

 

For my first trick I simply spray-painted them brown. I wanted to go with a wood look and had originally tried to gel stain, but that was a bad idea that had me outside the next day standing everything down for spraypaint!

 

Because the majority of the chair was being covered in fabric I only had to spray paint the frame of the chair and if overspray got on the seat it wasn’t a problem! I let it sit overnight to fully set.

 

Next step was attaching some quilting batting with spray adhesive to the top of the chair.

 

Author’s note: If your husband comes in and complains that you are going to be putting spray adhesive all over the floor because you want to do this indoors and watch re-runs of Rachel Zoe. Simply remind him of who actually cleans those floors and then just place a plastic bag on the floor to humor him! :)

I used a tacky spray so it needs to sit for a couple of seconds before you place the batting on top!

I secured it to the top first and then loop it back from the bottom and cut off the excess.

I then made sure to add a little extra spray adhesive to make it stick. You could either have it overlap a bit like picture above or just meet at the seams, which I did as well. Both worked.

 

Same steps for the seat of the chair. Cut batting to size and spray adhesive. This time I secured it first to the top then sprayed the main seat of the chair.

After securing it onto the seat I made sure to secure it to the bottom side of the chair as well.

I then repeated the above steps a couple more times or two episodes of Rachel Zoe and voila we were finished with that step.

Next step is attaching the fabric. I of course had to pick a fabric with a zig-zag which is not very forgiving so my cuts needed to be straight!

 

Authors note: To make sure you are cutting straight give yourself a marker on the pattern. For this cut I knew I would be going through the bottom of every point and I kept it straight!

I then simply folded over the sides so that I would no exposed edges that could fray and started stapling away.

The seat is the easiest section to apply fabric to because you can simply flip it to the back and staple away and no will see a seam.

 

Authors Note: The wood was a bit tough so some of the staples didn’t go in fully. We then had to take them outside and hammer them down a bit. It really was no problem and only added on a couple of minutes to the project.

To do the top of the chair you repeat the steps from above, but in this case a seam is going to so show. Depending on where you start applying the the seam can be at the bottom and semi hidden or on the back.

After securing the bottom of the fabric and stapling it onto the frame I tucked in the excess fabric from the top and used my glue gun to seal it!

You are now almost finished! To head the staples showing I took out the glue gun again and some ribbon trim and went to town!

This was a super easy and inexpensive project!

The chairs were each 5.99

I only need 2 yards of fabric a 8.99 a yard

Spray Adhesive – was in my craft closet

Quilting Batting- was in my craft closet, but the cheapest I have found is at Walmart.

One roll of ribbon- from local craft store- AC MOORE

Glue Gun- was in my craft closet

Staple Gun/Staples: was in my craft closet

Spray paint- 2 cans. I find them the cheapest at Walmart

 

I think if you check your home you’ll see that you have a lot of the tools already to put these DIY project into affect. The same can even be done with a metal folding chair! Instead of staples use a glue gun the whole way!!!

 

After finishing my project I took a little break and was going through the mail.

 

I stopped in awe when I spotted this:

at  fabric folding chair at Anthropologie for $198 per chair!!!!

 

Talk about crazy!

 

Use my DIY steps above and produce your own folding chairs! You can mix and match the fabric like Anthro did above or use the same fabric like me! Add ribbon trim or nail head trim. Spray it a neutral shade or go for a punch of color! The possibilities are endless!

 

Please remember to share pictures with me if you try it out yourself! Check out other DIY projects here