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Refinishing Chairs: Paint & Upholstery
By Alchemy Fine Living on Jun 21, 2012
We’ve been having fun with chairs lately! My mom and I upholstered this chair in a charcoal linen and a heavy cotton that has a very natural look to it. The seat, back and covered buttons are upholstered in fabric that has French words written in a pretty script. The arms and legs are trimmed in a charcoal linen ruffle with raw edges. To finish it off the bottom of the seat is adorned with a row of single cording.
This chair is filled with new cotton batting and the original springs were re-tied. It is super comfy!
This chair was also painted. We painted it white with a dry brush technique then sanded it heavily with 100 grit sandpaper. After rubbing much of the paint off we then stained it with an ebony Minwax stain.
My sister in-law, Natalie, started working for us last summer. She runs the store for us on Saturdays. She’s mentioned a few times wanting to learn how to sew, paint, and upholster, so we’ve been having her tackle little projects here and there. This chair is one of her first mater pieces! Isn’t it cute?? I think she did a great job.
She scrubbed it, sanded it, painted it a super fun green color, and then did the upholstery. When the upholstery was finished and the paint dry, we realized the color was all wrong. A celery green and a green apple just wouldn’t work. The solution? A stain! Her final step was to apply a thin layer of Minwax in dark walnut to tone down the color of the painted chair and it sure did the trick.
After it was all finished we asked her what her favorite part was and she said it was the stain. Her least favorite? Cleaning and sanding it. Prep work is the worst!! My mom and I hate that part too, but it is the most important.
