I originally shared this project way back in February 2011 when I first started blogging but thought it could use a refresh for all my new readers. I didn’t take as many high quality tutorial photo back then but I hope you can appreciate my new “after” photos showing off our fun chairs!
Backstory: I found this great pair of wooden folding chairs at my Father-in-Law’s house during a yard sale clean out.
I looked up any information I found printed on them to find they were from a now defunked manufacturer in Fort Wayne Indiana in the 1950s. Can’t you tell from the yellow paint job and plastic covers? Looks like something out of my grandpa’s era!
They had a solid wood base and the seat flipped up to be foldable storage. Who doesn’t need extra foldable seating for their home? I decided they needed to come home with us and a facelift was a must!
These babies were cakes in a thick layer of paint so I got to work removing as much as I could.
I laid out a dropcloth, donned my protective facemask, goggles and junky clothes and got to work using chemical strippers to strip the paint. This was a more time consuming process than I realized! (Notice this was all done in our then dingy garage space, which was not yet turned into the beautiful work room it is now!)
After a lot of work scrapping the paint, I painted the wood parts with two coats of white paint for a fresh new look.
I reupholstered the seats with new foam and this fun home décor fabric found at JOANN’s Fabrics and I now have two DIY chairs as extra seating in our new home!
Aren’t they cute?
We just redid our kitchen chairs. I recommend using outdoor fabric when there are children in the house. Ours were so stained with whatever fell on them and we had to keep towels on all the chairs. Now it wipes up with a paper towel and doesn’t leave a mark.
Great tip Nicole! I redid these long before miss Brielle was in the picture :)
Super cute! Great job!