Look for inspiration at your local Goodwill store! My love for thrift store shopping all started when we first moved into our house three years ago, and I realized I couldn't afford to decorate our entire home with brand new furniture. I began searching for inexpensive ways to furnish our house, and soon learned just how many treasures were waiting to be unearthed at nearby thrift stores. I've transformed a lot of junk in the past few years....old dressers, tables...but my favorite is the chair. Having zero prior experience in using paint or reupholstering furniture, I slowly taught myself (through trial and error) how to take a junky old chair and turn it into something worthy of using in my home. Today, I'll show you my 10 best chair makeovers, and hopefully leave you with a few ideas on how you can update any old chairs you may have laying around. This is my favorite and most recent upholstery project. I took an old $5 Goodwill piano bench transformed it into a lookalike of my favorite Ballard Designs bench.
All it took was a little paint, some striped fabric, and about an hour of my time. See the full story here.The Rocking Chair Makeover A friend of mine found an old rocker at a local estate sale and enlisted my help in painting and reupholstering it. The before and after is pretty drastic. Take a look here.The Striped Chair Makeover: This little blue striped chair was one of my favorite projects to date. My mom picked this up at a local thrift store and gave it to me to reupholster. I absolutely loved the way this chair turned out. You won't believe what it looked like before.The Stenciled Vanity Stool Project: For this project, I took an old, outdated, wooden stool and upgraded it with some pretty fabric and fringe trim. (I also stenciled and painted the vanity table!). See that story here. I found this little chair for $5 at Goodwill and totally transformed it using light blue paint (on the wood) and reupholstering the cushion with a tablecloth!! It turned out to be a great, really cheap alternative to upholstery fabric.
I finished it off with silver nailheads. I love this little chair. Months after I reupholstered it the first time, I decided to play with it again. But this time, I did something really different.....I took plain white fabric and painted blue stripes on it. Sanding the fabric (after the paint dried) with fine grit sandpaper was all it took to make this chair soft and comfy. See the full tutorial here.Green & White Trellis Chair This little chair is one of my favorite chair projects. The Ballard Designs Knock Off Chair: I was ecstatic to find this chair at a thrift store for just a few bucks. Especially when I came home and saw the exact same chair in a Ballard Designs catalog for $400! I gave this chair the same upholstery treatment as I did the last one, only this time paired with a cute striped pillow! The Drop Cloth Chair Basically, I decided to follow the massive trend of dropcloth upholstery on this chair. And I fell in love. Soon See the full story of this chair here.
Okay, so this one isn't a chair. But, I love it so much that I'm including it anyways. To see how I upholstered my headboard with a dropcloth, visit this post. Follow my blog with Follow my blog on Subscribe to LiveLoveDIY with email!This plain wooden chair has been transformed into a work of art. This dull old wicker chair is now light and airy. It's amazing what a lick of paint and some new fabric can do. This dated tartan chair is now a rustic delight. This chair was ready for the junk yard but has been transformed into a shabby chic dream. This chair was uninteresting, but is now impossible to ignore. A coat of paint and some awesome floral fabric has given this old office chair a new lease of life. Please activate some Widgets in this widget aread.Show All ItemsMy sister recently bought a house and they are in the process of making it their own. Week after week Jenny has sent me links to rocking chairs that were just too pricey or falling apart on Craigslist.
I immediately knew this would be a fun project to surprise her with. Check out the blog post hereStep 1: Step 1: Finding a ChairShow All ItemsAfter a few weekends of yard sales and estates sales I finally found the rocker suitable for my sisters outdoor porch. This chair although looks like she needs some love is solid wood and sturdy as can be! I bet she's at least 60+ years old. Now if this chair was for me I would just sand it down smooth and clear coat it, leaving the shabby weathered look, but that's not really my sisters style.« PreviousNext »View All Steps DownloadThis post contains Affiliate links Here is a list of products for this project and links to buy them. DIY paint, you can use any color combo here’s what I suggest for a similar look. Old’57, Carnival Red, Fancy Farm Girl, Bead Board, Layered Chocolate, Queen Bee, Summer Crush, and Hey Sailor old chair, pallet wood or any wood surface you would like to paint on. Palm Sander and or Sand paper
This project was a doozy, it took Bobby and I about two weeks to create this chair, film, and edit the video. Ever since laying my eyes on all the beautiful furniture made out of recycled boat wood I’ve experimenting with DIY paint, trying to get the look of an old weathered boat. Here’s the video showing how I did it… get your spatula ready! I have several tips that were not included in the video if you would like to try this look you will definitely want to keep a few things in mind. 1 The very first layer I painted on using a brush, I recommend because I wanted the pallet wood to look like old distressed hardwood I let that dry overnight so that it would cure and not be as easy to chip away. 2. Use thin coats of thick paint. DIY Paint will thicken very easily by simply pouring some out and exposing it to the air, when you open a new can of DIY paint, there is usually a thick layer that collects on the lid, just scrape it off and use it in your project.
I had several cans of old paint with just a little bit left at the bottom, there was one container that was very thick because the lid was not put back on tight, it was a thick as frosting and perfect for this. Put the layers on in thin coats as you will be adding several colors and you don’t want to get too much paint on your boards. 3. The last layer of paint is the magic layer!! I say this because when you apply a new layer of paint it reactivates the layers that are underneath, so you want each layer to dry completely until you get to the very last layer then let that dry about 90%, you will feel that it’s cold to the touch, this is the perfect time to start chipping with the putty knife as it will be easy to expose all the beautiful layers of color on your project. If you don’t let each layer of paint dry completely, they will blend together and create an entirely different look (like tie-dye). 4. Why the spatula? because you want uneven coverage without brush marks.
This really helps create an authentic look, You don’t want each layer of paint to cover the entire board, and the lack of brush marks will add to the…, “I’m an old boat out at sea for 100 years, Ive been painted and repainted, banged up and pushed around” look. 5. Use the sander with caution, I alternated chipping with a putty knife and using my sander however I used the sander primarily to remove large areas of paint and then I went back with the putty knife again and rechipped. The chipping is what makes it look wonderful but it’s a fine line between chips so chippy that they may flake off and the perfect amount of chipping that you need to make it look like magic. If you sand too much it will look like a distressed piece but it won’t look “boaty”. 5. DIY paint will get the job done right. I have not attempted to achieve this look with any other paint brands however most paint has laytex in it (even most other chalk type brands) the laytex will interfere with getting this done easily.
When you sand paint that has latex and it balls up like a cheap sweater or it will rip a hole in your project that looks like a wound, ( imagine a balloon or a rubber glove with a hole in it ) and when you attempt to chip it stretches like rubber. DIY paint is really soft and pliable until it has cured completely it’s easy to manipulate it dries quickly and most importantly it has zero laytex, chemicals or VOC’s which allows you to do so many things with it that you cannot do with other brands of paint. I put together a boat wood paint kit, for all of you who may be skeptical or curious or just not ready to invest in a full quart of paint. BTW on quart painted the entire front of my shop, a little really does go a long way! This kit includes ALL the products I used in my video in 1 ounce taste test sizes, that’s seven colors of CeCe Caldwell paint, a 5 x 7 frame, wood pieces sandpaper endurance and complete instructions and more! You can re-create this awesome boat wood finish for yourself and see why I’m so excited about this paint.