Hello There!
I just had to share this fantastic before & after project I finished tonight. I finally got my new Amy Butler fabric, and I had to use it right away. As you may remember, I based my entire craft room on this fabric and actually having the fabric will hopefully bring everything together.
Click here for the print-friendly PDF tutorial.
Director Chair Facelift
Supplies:
Director chair (found for $5.00 at a thrift store)
Spray Paint ($4.00 at Hobby Lobby, Krylon in Pistachio)
Spray Primer (Free…already sitting around the house)
Sandpaper (Free…already sitting around the house)
Fabric (Amy Butler’s Love in Periwinkle ½ yard $4.00)
Total for Project: Around $13.00
Directions:
Step One: Sand & Prime Your Chair
Perhaps the first step should be to locate a Director’s Chair? I have often found chairs at thrift stores like Goodwill or on Craigslist. Often they are promotional chairs with something really ugly on the fabric. Those are the best though! The uglier, the cheaper!
After you’ve found your chair, you want to sand it very well. I tried to spray paint without sanding. I’ve done it before and it looked fine. However, there must have been some sort of finish that hated me, because it looked terrible. So, I started over with the process by sanding.
To insure an even coat, I used a spray primer I had sitting around.
My Director’s Chair Before Its Facelift
Step Two: Paint the Chair
The trick with spray painting is to do long, even, and thin strokes. It’s important to avoid windy weather. If you get the dreaded drips, you can sand between coats to even out the color. I found that reading the label can be really helpful to see how long you should have between coats and between repositioning (which you will probably need to do to get cover everything).
I ended up having to get a second can of spray paint since I didn’t sand prior to doing my first coat. However, I’m confident that one would have worked if I hadn’t messed up.
Step Three: Cover the Fabric
You have two options for changing the fabric. If you use a heavy duty home décor fabric, you could make a completely new seat and back. Use the current fabric as a template for the new back and cover.
I, however, wanted to use a quilt cotton blend fabric. Alone this fabric wouldn’t be strong enough to sit on. I decided to use the current fabric on the chair and just cover with the new cotton fabric. I made sure the old stripes didn’t show through the fabric first (if it had, I could have put a solid fabric between the two fabrics).
I then simply folded over the fabric, pinned it and stitched along the current stitching. Be careful to not sew the openings shut on the back piece. The downside of using this method? The back of the director’s chair isn’t as pretty as it could be. I’m currently using the chair so that you don’t see the back of the chair. However, if I ever need the back to be more presentable, I will just take a piece of the fabric and place it on the back & hem it.
The back and bottom of the new fabric pieces. It’s not perfect; however, who is looking under the chair?
Kinda hard to see, but the chair works pretty well in the room.
Friday Linked To:
Tatertots & Jello
The Shabby Nest
It's a Hodgepodge Life
Chic on a Shoestring
WhipperBerry
I just had to share this fantastic before & after project I finished tonight. I finally got my new Amy Butler fabric, and I had to use it right away. As you may remember, I based my entire craft room on this fabric and actually having the fabric will hopefully bring everything together.
Click here for the print-friendly PDF tutorial.
Director Chair Facelift
Supplies:
Director chair (found for $5.00 at a thrift store)
Spray Paint ($4.00 at Hobby Lobby, Krylon in Pistachio)
Spray Primer (Free…already sitting around the house)
Sandpaper (Free…already sitting around the house)
Fabric (Amy Butler’s Love in Periwinkle ½ yard $4.00)
Total for Project: Around $13.00
Directions:
Step One: Sand & Prime Your Chair
Perhaps the first step should be to locate a Director’s Chair? I have often found chairs at thrift stores like Goodwill or on Craigslist. Often they are promotional chairs with something really ugly on the fabric. Those are the best though! The uglier, the cheaper!
After you’ve found your chair, you want to sand it very well. I tried to spray paint without sanding. I’ve done it before and it looked fine. However, there must have been some sort of finish that hated me, because it looked terrible. So, I started over with the process by sanding.
To insure an even coat, I used a spray primer I had sitting around.
My Director’s Chair Before Its Facelift
Step Two: Paint the Chair
The trick with spray painting is to do long, even, and thin strokes. It’s important to avoid windy weather. If you get the dreaded drips, you can sand between coats to even out the color. I found that reading the label can be really helpful to see how long you should have between coats and between repositioning (which you will probably need to do to get cover everything).
I ended up having to get a second can of spray paint since I didn’t sand prior to doing my first coat. However, I’m confident that one would have worked if I hadn’t messed up.
Step Three: Cover the Fabric
You have two options for changing the fabric. If you use a heavy duty home décor fabric, you could make a completely new seat and back. Use the current fabric as a template for the new back and cover.
I, however, wanted to use a quilt cotton blend fabric. Alone this fabric wouldn’t be strong enough to sit on. I decided to use the current fabric on the chair and just cover with the new cotton fabric. I made sure the old stripes didn’t show through the fabric first (if it had, I could have put a solid fabric between the two fabrics).
I then simply folded over the fabric, pinned it and stitched along the current stitching. Be careful to not sew the openings shut on the back piece. The downside of using this method? The back of the director’s chair isn’t as pretty as it could be. I’m currently using the chair so that you don’t see the back of the chair. However, if I ever need the back to be more presentable, I will just take a piece of the fabric and place it on the back & hem it.
The back and bottom of the new fabric pieces. It’s not perfect; however, who is looking under the chair?
Kinda hard to see, but the chair works pretty well in the room.
Friday Linked To:
Tatertots & Jello
The Shabby Nest
It's a Hodgepodge Life
Chic on a Shoestring
WhipperBerry
1 comment
Did you remove the hardware from your chair before you spray painted it? I found a director's chair frame from Goodwill and the wood is in fairly good condition but I am considering painting it. The problem is I am finding places where I don't think I can remove the hardware
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