You guys know one of my favourite things is finding someone else’s junk and turning it into something fun and unique.
This sidewalk flip is one of my most challenging projects yet but I loved the process. When I found 4 matching chairs on the side of the road in such good condition I just couldn’t walk past them, I mean, who could blame me?! The way these turned out are so different from what I normally do but that’s what I love about them. Read on to see how I did it.
You need
- Chairs to upcycle (these are sturdy Super Amart ones)
- Upholstery Fabric
- Paint (I used British Paints Reckless Green and white)
- Wood filler
- Wooden Wine Rack
- Wood Screws
- Sander (I used my Dremel)
- Painters Tape
- Staple gun
Inspiration
How to
1
First up I spent some time testing patterns on my fabric. Play around with some colours and patterns until you achieve the look you're after.
2
Next it's time to change the back of the chair add a wave. I used a handsaw to remove the inside panel and top of the chair back and then added the wave to the top and middle. You'll need to cut the ends off the wave piece to match the width of the chair before attaching it. Use a drill to screw the wave piece onto the chair for stability. This will look messy at first but you can fix that with some wood filler. Once that's dried, sand it back for a nice smooth finish.
3
Once the shape of the chair is done it's time to transform the seat cushion. I found it quite difficult to achieve a smooth uniform finish when painting free-hand so I ended up creating clean lines with painters tape and then painted in between. It made a really nice consistent result and it was so easy!
4
Once the fabric is painted and dried you can remove the seat cushion and attach the fabric using a staple gun. Make sure if you're using a stripe fabric to keep checking the top to make sure your fabric is sitting straight and your lines and nice and smooth.
5
I then used my Dremel to sand over the whole thing before painting it. I chose to paint some chairs in white and some in green which worked really well with the painted fabric. Once the paint was dry, I put the seat back on the top and screwed it in. And she's done!
