Mid-century Dining Chairs

October has been a tough month, lots of rain and not enough sunshine here in the West Coast.  On top of it all, I had a really frustrating and challenging time with this chair reupholster project.  I had reupholstered chairs before so I thought this one would be no difference…

First of all, it took me several hours to unscrew the seats and the backs from the chairs.  The screw hole buttons/plugs were permanently glued onto the chairs.  So in order to remove the buttons to get to the screws, I had to drill through them.     

Next up, removing old musty smelling carpet like fabric...  Whoever originally upholstered the chairs meant business because I had a really hard time removing the staples.  It took me a day to remove the fabric for just one chair.  I am not kidding you but I got blisters on my fingers pulling out what seemed like millions of staples.

I sanded the chairs and stained them in a dark mahogany color.  When it comes to reupholstering, the seat part was easy.  But the back was an entirely different story.  I can only say it brought back memory of sewing my bridesmaid dresses….  Or, in other word, it took a very very very long time for me to get the back right.

What I did to the chair next, you might or might not agree.  I white washed the fabric so the originally design has a transparent look to it.  Then I painted the blue strips to create a French linen style look.  Let me know what you think about this French inspired mid-century dining chair.

One chair down and three more to go…



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