Old Chair + Easy Redo = Happy

My grandmother used to say, “people that say money can’t buy happiness don’t know where to shop.” Well, I say people that say money can’t buy happiness don’t know what color of spray paint to buy. My kids officially call this the “happy chair”. Is it a display piece? Nope. Is it my favorite chair in the world? Uh uh. Does it match the rest of the house? Not really. But, does it make me happy? Totally!

It has been a cold, cold, winter. Even for my desert town. We had the biggest snow storm in 30 years and there is still snow on our grass! I needed something to brighten up our world. I was given two old chairs a year ago when an office was doing a remodel, they look very office-y. (Don’t judge me by my messy garage! It’s on my to do list!)

I didn’t think they were terribly attractive, but they are in great shape and you can almost bet when someone offers me something for free, especially furniture, my answer will be yes. The chairs sat in our garage since they were dropped off and were used when putting on shoes, a shelf for oranges, or whatever. But mostly they just sat there.

Materials:

• fabric
• old chair
• spray paint
• staple gun

I bought 1/2 yard of upholstery fabric on sale from JoAnn’s. I used only part of it, so the fabric was $4. I let my five year old pick out the spray paint with the only parameters of, “it needs to be a color on this fabric and it needs to make you happy.” I already knew he would pick yellow, or “gold” as he calls it. Rustoleum Ultra Touch is one of my favorite kinds of spray paint and at Wal-mart it is only $3.77. For the record I do feel bad about painting over nice wood, but considering this wood was chipped anyways I didn’t have much remorse. The project cost a little less than $8.

If you have never recovered furniture, this type of chair is the easiest project in the world and a great place to start.

1. Remove the seat. It is usually screwed to the chair on each corner, turn the chair upside down and unscrew, the seat will fall out.

2. Cut then staple your fabric on. Usually I take the old stuff off, but this fabric was really clean, so I just saved the step and wrapped over the top.

3. Paint the chair (or not!), you’ll need a few coats:

4. Replace the cushion and done. So easy, took only about an hour.

Originally I planned to use the chair in my master closet, but the boys love it so much it is usually found by the piano and I use it when the boys are practicing. It’s nice to have a use-anywhere-for-anything chair. And for eight buckaroos there is a burst of spring during this gloomy winter!

Before and After:

Happy Creating everyone!