Time for a Make Over

I have this kitchen table and chairs that I've always found to be somewhat hideous. While the chairs are comfortable, they're just plain ugly. Unfortunately, the kitchen table and chairs I want is out of my budget so I've gotten creative and decided to do a complete makeover. I've never attempted something like this, but I figured regardless of what I did, it couldn't look any worse than it does now. Essentially that makes this the perfect opportunity to attempt refinishing and re-upholstering. Nothing to lose but my sanity. So here's the agonizing process I've gone through for chair #1.

This is the chair. Actually, there are four of them to be re-done, but this is their original state. How old they are I've no idea, but I've had them about 4 years. Definitely not the prettiest looking, but they are fairly comfortable. So I took it apart.

I'm not going to lie - it stayed in pieces like this, in the corner of my living room for about 3 weeks. In my defense, and few other things kept coming up that demanded more immediate attention. Plus, it took me a while to decide what color to paint it, and another many weeks of deliberating what fabric to re-cover. That being said, it only took about 20 minutes to sand the entire chair free of it's current finish job. It was definitely time to be re-made.

Since the color scheme of my house is along the lines of earthy tones, I settled on a deep rich brown color that would be warm and go with just about anything. The technical paint color is "chocolate therapy." I think it was a good choice.

While the paint and finish were drying, I took apart the cushions. They were pretty nasty and filthy. I don't like to think about what the original color of this fabric was.

I broke many nails, staples, and a staple gun in the process of recovering this stupid chair. In the end this is what it became.

After getting the seat covered, I re-attached it to the chair and worked on the other upholstery part. It took a lot of fabric as this chair is mostly cushion with a little wood framing. No wonder it's comfortable.

                              Wait for it . . . . .  The final, finished look. Chair #1 makeover completed.

 I'm happy with how it turned out, but then again it couldn't look any worse than what I had to start with. I'm currently halfway through chair number 2, and almost done refinishing the table. My goal is to have the whole project done my Thanksgiving. The clock is ticking. And now that I know how to do it, and what the process is like, I don't think I want to do it again anytime in the near future.