A Dining Room Chair Makeover

A Dining Room Chair Makeover

Submitted By A Girl and a Key

Remember these Louis XVI style square back chairs I snagged from Craigslist for only $125 for all four?

They have slowly but surely been receiving updates on a weekly basis and they are finally complete! They went from this...

To this...

As soon as we got the chairs home, I started looking for inspiration of what I wanted the chairs to look like in the end. I first turned to some blog queens for their input and the amazingEmily A. Clark suggested a fresh coat of paint and new upholstery. I completely agreed and took to the web for some inspiration. The entire transformation began with this chair from Ballard Designs...

Do you see that price?? $429-581= Crazytown

In an effort to bring the c-list chairs up to par with the a-list Ballard version, I started with sanding and painting the frames white (I used Valspar's Honeymilk.)

Then it was time to buck up and give upholstering the good ole college try. I decided to use canvas drop clothes because they were the perfect color already and I wouldn't feel awful if the upholstering went terribly bad and had to be ripped apart.

To give them a punch of color, I taped two strips to the back panels and painted them a blue color to match our dinnerware.

Once the chairs were painted and upholstered, they looked a little too new for my liking. So, I mixed a homemade glaze (a combo of mustard, gray, and green paints with water did the trick) and ran a sanding block over the edges to give some age to the chairs.

I absolutely love how they turned out and am proud that I was able to fight my impatient-ness (that is so not a word, but I am going with it) to take my time and do them correctly!

So what do you think, did I take the chairs from the original c-list (craigslist) state to the a-list (Ballard Designs) state?

Original

Inspiration

Finished (back)

New dining room chairs and wall photo gallery

                                                                                 

This project was contributed by one of our fabulous readers! We love to share your projects with this great blogging community. So, if you have projects from kitchen renovation ideas to small bathroom remodels, overhauled and repurposed furniture, spray paint updates you name it please send it in! Thanks for reading Remodelaholic!

Take a peek at more lovely chairs:

Carver Chair Before and After Upgrade

Re-upholstered Side Chair

Wingback Chair Reupholstering Tutorial

Fishbone Chair Project Plans and Tutorial

Desk and Chair Facelift!

p.s. I am over at Kristen's blog today.  Check it out here.