I bought new seating for our kitchen island/table a few years ago from Wayfair after we remodeled our kitchen. I thought the set would last a while, and it was nice for a few years, but the padding in the cushions started to flatten out pretty quickly, and they were getting uncomfortable. The cats like to sit on the stools for some reason and I'm sure they've dug their nails in to them more than a few times. I'm only half joking when I say that the cats and the kids really do ruin everything around here. Our family is hard on furniture, but this time, instead of opting to replace everything, I decided that I had watched enough DIY TikTok videos in the last 2 years to deconstruct this furniture and bring it back to life... and that was all the assurance I was going to need to get it done.
A few weeks ago, I purchased a paint sprayer that I had seen used in a lot of the videos I'd been watching online and I was itching to use it. I didn't need it, but I wanted it, and this was my shining moment to justify the investment I had made not only to myself, but to my husband.
I had no idea what I was doing, but you have to start somewhere, so I started taking the first chair apart. Before I knew it, I was ripping off fabric, collecting screws, tracing patterns, and removing upholstery nails and staples. Pretty soon all of the chairs were in pieces and there was no going back. I was committed.
I'm honestly not sure I wouldn't have been better off on expenses if I had just bought new freaking chairs when it was all said and done, or that I didn't develop crippling arthritis in my hands from stretching all the fabric over the bases, but here is the finished product and a few pictures of the process along the way.
I thought about making a TikTok video of this project, but for as good as I am at watching the videos, I have about zero knowledge on how to create content so instead I made this lame video which gives no helpful advice on how to do any part of the project. It's basically a headless video of me tracing a cushion and putting a cap on a Sharpie. The only other video footage I have is from our security cameras that captured me and my mom fighting off bees while we tried to put up the paint tent I bought for the paint sprayer I didn't need, but really wanted. I had a hard time uploading it, but snagged a snapshot from the clip. That tent was a son-of-a-gun to put up too. I have my dad's affliction of refusing to look at the directions until I've been backed into a corner, but when I finally did give in and read the directions it went up much easier. The bees weren't helping the situation either.
That's my cute mom in yellow. She was supervising.
And much like my video, this whole story isn't much of a tutorial so I hope no one came here looking for directions on how to makeover anything with paint and upholstery or anything... The moral of the story is that sometimes you just have to rip the seams and take something apart to figure out how to do it. It wasn't long ago I heard the phrase "Eat the Frog" for the first time and it sounded goofy so I "googled" it. Do the hard thing first and the rest will get easier. Get the thing you will procrastinate about the longest, out of the way first. Don't get hung up on the thing you dread... and the new paint sprayer was overwhelming me, so I left it in the box for 3 weeks. I started doubting that I could do something that involved tools from the hardware store, or that I could put it back together and that it would actually be better. But then I did! Little by little I started to build momentum and confidence, and before I knew it my old chairs went from this:
To this:
And in true "Cats and Kids Ruin Everything"fashion, this happened:
It was nice while it lasted. All 3 hours of it. Good thing I knew better and added 3 coats of Scotchgard to everything before I let them sit on any of it. I can't even be mad though because someone with 6 kids, 4 cats, and a dog should know better than to reupholster anything in their house in ivory. Let's take bets on how long they stay that color; my guess, is not for very long.
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