I love finding furniture and giving it a new life via paint.
I owe that to my mom who, from as early as I can remember, would DIY just about anything she could get her hands on. From my childhood bookcases to our kitchen cabinets, she would spend her weekends and summer afternoons in the garage, sanding, priming and painting away, while my sister and I hula hooped and played with our Skip-It on the driveway.
Now that I have an apartment of my own, I find myself wanting to fix up and DIY, just like her! I’m always on the hunt for inexpensive pieces of furniture that just need a little inspiration and some TLC, so, naturally, I was super happy to find this chair for $12 on Craigslist.

Before
It has a great silhouette, but the Halloween orange taffeta seat HAD to go. Plus, the foam cushion underneath the awful fabric was improperly cut, lumpy and not very comfy to sit on.
I started by removing the seat with a screwdriver. Then I sanded the whole chair frame, applied 2 coats of a black semi-gloss paint and followed with a sealer.
As for the seat, I replaced the old foam with a new piece, found a cute Chevron fabric to stretch across the top, used a staple gun to secure the taut fabric on top of the seat and screwed the seat back into place – all done in my dining room, mind you!

This was my first piece of reupholstered furniture, and it was MUCH easier than expected. I plan on finding more cool chairs like this to re-paint and re-cover, and when I do, I’ll post a more thorough tutorial.

After
As for now, I have a cute little reading chair in the corner of my bedroom.

And, of course, while taking a few photos of it, the Baker couldn’t help but join in on the photo shoot!
