Has your chair become worn out? Are you emotionally attached to it and would hate to part ways with it? Relax! Gharpedia shares with you a simple and easy DIY chair makeover project to lend a new look to your favourite chair. Read on to know more about wooden chair makeover ideas.
It is always worth looking out for a chair with the potential for a makeover. The ideal chair for this project is oak or pitch pine with a drop-in seat pad. Oak is a beautiful hardwood, whose characteristic grain is often disguised with dark stains and heavy varnish. Strip off all the old coatings to reveal the natural wood beneath.
The liming is done with a liming wax. Once the wood has been treated, the chair seat is given a new look with a covering of soft suede – either imitation or real suede. An alternative is to use recycled suede from an old skirt picked up from a charity shop or flea market.
Things Required
- A piece of suede large enough to cover the seat or a suede garment to cut up and recover the seat
- A wooden (oak or pitch pine) dining chair in need of rescue
- Fine wire wool
- Furniture wax
- Glue
- Liming wax
- Scissors
- Staple gun
- Soft polishing cloth
- Wire brush
The Step-By-Step Process
Bring out the beauty of oak with this simple liming treatment, then add a new seat cover and transform an old dining chair into a contemporary piece of furniture. Here are the steps for dining chair makeover ideas and creative DIY chair ideas. You can check them out:
- Save yourself from the pain and have the chair professionally dipped in a paint-stripping tank. When it has dried out, check all the joints and re-glue where necessary. Push a wire brush along the surface, following the direction of the grain. This is called raking out, and it will get rid of any soft wood or dust trapped in the grooves.
- Dip the wire wool into the liming wax and rub the wax into the wood, both with and against the grain.
- Leave it to dry for about half an hour, then dip a fresh piece of wire wool in furniture polish and rub over the surface to lift off the liming wax. The grain will show up white where the lime has remained in the grooves. Buff the surface with a soft cloth.
- Trim away any thick seams, zips and buttons from the garment, which can be used as part of a deliberate design on the seat.
- Lay the seat base on the suede and use one staple in the middle of each side to attach the suede to the seat frame.
- Staple the suede all the way around the seat frame, pulling it taut and trimming away any excess. Fit the seat back into the chair frame.
Voila! You have transformed your old chair, and it is ready to welcome gasps of admiration from visitors!
Are you looking for more DIY projects to spruce up old chairs? Here are the steps to rejuvenate your old chair:
Before you take a leave, do you have old cane chairs at your home that also need a new look? Here’s a blog to refurbish old chairs, and restore old chairs:
And if you love painting chairs, here’s how you can paint the kitchen chairs in Provencal style:
How To Paint Kitchen Table and Chairs To Bring In Provencal Style?
Image Courtesy: Image 2, Image 3, Image 4
Author Bio
Huta Raval – An English Literature and Journalism Topper, Huta Raval has graduated from the L D Arts College, Ahmedabad. Post serving for 23 years in the NBFC and Public Library Sectors her desire for ‘writing the unwritten’ brought her to the creative field of content writing. Her clientele comprises of NGOs, Blogging Platforms, Newspapers, Academic Institutions, et al.