{DIY} From The Blue Chair

I’m so excited for this next guest posting, because I actually know her personally and she’s awesome!  I know that you are going to find her to be just dandy!  She crafts, she quilts, she photographs, she blogs…  I told you she is awesome!  This particular guest posting doesn’t pertain to her quilting, but I LOVE her quilts.  In fact she is entered right now in a Halloween quilting contest and you can vote for her fabulous Spooky Wonky Log Cabin HERE.  It’s quilt #1 so get voting!  :)   And here is my friend and former roomie, Kati…

Hi! I’m Kati from the blue chair. Thanks so much to Tara for letting me do a guest post today about my blue chair. Tara and I were roommates in college. I certainly have some good stories, but we’ll stick to refurnishing chairs today.

I have a thing for chairs. I like to get them from Goodwill for around $5 and paint them. It’s become a bit of a problem. My husband even asked me recently to stop. I guess no more Goodwill chairs for a while, but at least I have my favorite chair to use every day while I sew. This is the chair that inspired my blog name—from the blue chair. This was a pretty sad little Goodwill find, but sturdy. He definitely had some potential, but needed a lot of love.

 

When scouring for chairs I look for a few things—sturdy, solid wood, relatively good condition, and character (you don’t want just a plain old kitchen chair). Sit in it. Wiggle the back. Flip it upside down and make sure those legs are well attached. Once you have your chair, get it ready to paint.

Painting prep:

This guy needed some work, but it wasn’t too bad. I filled the deep scratches with wood filler then sanded the edges a bit to smooth things over. I cleaned it and wiped all surfaces down with an everyday kitchen cleaner. Then I wiped it with a clean, damp cloth.

 

Replacing the seat:

I removed the original seat by flipping it over and unscrewing it from the bottom. Then I cut a piece of high density foam using the seat base as my template. My foam was 2” which is pretty thick but I sit in this guy while sewing. I wanted it to be comfortable. I used a little hot glue to adhere it to the seat base.

The seat fabric is Tufted Tweets in Grass by Laurie Wisburn. I chose the fabric for the seat cover because I adore it, but it’s quilting weight fabric and not available in décor weight. To strengthen the fabric, I fused it to heavy twill using Ultra Heat and Bond. This made it a bit more difficult to work with than normal décor weight fabric, but it made it durable for long-term use. After getting the fabric ready, I started stapling it on using a craft staple gun. I did the sides first and then the front and back, pulling the fabric as tightly as I could.

Painting:

To paint this guy I used Pacific Sea Teal in gloss by Bear from Home Depot. I chose to brush on the paint rather than spray painting because I was a bit particular about the color and there aren’t a lot of color options in spray paint. I used their Ultra paint with primer in it, making painting one easy step.

Finishing:

After allowing the paint to cure for a couple days, I attached the seat using the original hardware. After a little work, some new paint and fabric, I have a funky new sewing chair that I love!

Painted chairs make a fun accent in any room or a fabulous photography prop. For a super funky look, collect an assortment of chairs and paint them each a different color for your dining room table. My next chair project might be a pink one. My three-year-old has requested a pink chair for the dinner table. I just might indulge her.