The $5 Chair Rehab

What would you do if you saw these “Before” chairs at a yard sale?  Or even on the side of the road for free?  Would you drive right by thinking how junky they are?  Not me – I see them as an awesome project waiting for my creativity!

For this project we had a pair of chairs that had an off white cushion.  Not sure what was on these chairs but they easily could have ended up in a dumpster – but I couldn’t let that happen.

I actually enjoy reupholstering and enjoy adding different color to our chairs whenever I want.

Here are the chairs before I got a hold of them!!

Yeah, fun.

My younger daughter is testing them out (don’t mind the hair bling she put on her forehead…)

Anyway – I went to the Salvation Army because sometimes they have some fabric for sale.  Walmart near us finally started carrying fabric again so I was going to head there next.  However, I hit the jackpot at Salvation Army and scored this green and white striped fabric.  It was several yards for just $5 – far better than I would have paid at a big box store.  I was a little nervous about working with stripes but figured I would give it a shot.

I didn’t take any photos in progress so I will explain it.  The underside of this particular style chair had five screws – once I unscrewed them, it released the entire cushion.  Then I simply placed the cushion on the fabric, trying to get the stripes straight, and cut around it with approximately a three inch edge.  Then I started stapling the fabric to the underside of the cushion.  I stapled one side first to anchor it, then as I stapled each additional side – I pulled tight while stapling.

Once the cushion cover is all stapled on, I put it back on the chair and screw it back down.  It takes a bit of time but it is a pretty easy project with amazing results.

What can I do next?