Vintage Chair Makeover With Paint And Fabric

Hey Friends, I bought a vintage waterfall chair for $12 from our local online auction house. To say it was dated would be an understatement.

I painted the chair and covered the seat with colorful fabric to give it a modern look. So much better.

The original stained finish was really dark with an orange tint. The color was not appealing. But the detailed carving and wood appliques give the chair a lot of charm.

I will walk you through the makeover, and I have a video showing how I recovered the seat. This is Furniture Fixer Upper Tour Day, and as usual, my partners have some stunning makeovers. The links follow my tutorial. 

The first order of business was to remove the fabric seat from the wood frame. On most dining chairs, this is really simple. Four screws attach the seat to the chair, one on each corner. Just remove the screws, and the seat pops off. 

The padding was solid, and the fabric didn’t have any tears, so I left that as is and cleaned the fabric with simple green. No need to remove the old fabric. 

I’ve used this fabric before, and I love it. I didn’t have enough left to cover the chair, so I ordered the same fabric from eBay. The off-white flowers and leaves were darker or more tan than the original cut of fabric I purchased years ago. 

Deciding what color to paint the chair was my problem. I didn’t want a girly fuchsia color and was thinking about turquoise, but it didn’t feel right either. 

Brown seemed too drab. So I went to my paint stash and found an unopened jar of Dixie Belle Silk Mineral Paint, Everglades color. It was a perfect match for one of the green colors in the fabric. 

I really like the Silk paint because it is a three-in-one…..primer, paint, and top coat. 

After applying the first coat of paint, I grabbed a small brush to get the paint into the fine details.

The first coat of paint dried quickly, and a second coat of paint was all the chair needed for complete coverage.

 

The Everglades paint color is a great contrast to the bold fabric.

The paint has the perfect sheen, not too glossy and not flat.

I almost distressed the paint, but then I thought about that orange-stained finish under the paint and decided that was not a good idea.

Those details would be pretty faux distressed with dark brown paint. I may do that! The video showing how I recovered the seat is at the top of the post.

Thanks for being here, Kathy