Vanity chair re-do...

When I purchased my antique vanity it didn't have a stool or a chair with it so I immediately went looking for one. It gave me a reason to do more shopping hehe.. Anyway, I found this cute little chair at a Thrift and antique mall for $10 but it needed a little TLC..


It was shaky, the seat needed to be covered, and the paint on the caning on the back was a little discolored. Other than that it was nice AND the same color as my vanity.. score.. So I got it and took it home.. It didn't take a lot of effort to make that chair look great again...






Needed for this project: Chair, heavy duty stapler, enough fabric to cover the chair seat, black acrylic paint, craft paint brush, and polyurethane paint sealer, handheld drill, flat head screwdriver.

The first thing I did was take the seat off the chair. I had to use my drill to get some of the screws out because they were rusted in.. After that I went through and tighened all the screws up on the chair so it wouldnt be so shaky, making sure that I didn't tighten them so tight that it busted the wood.







Then I took my seat and removed the seat cover. It was a vinyl type material so I didnt want to cover over it. I wanted the chair to be more comfortable. I used my flat head screwdriver to remove the staples that didnt want to pull off easily.

Once the cover was off I used it as a template for my new fabric.. I cut the new fabric to size and set it aside. (NOTE: I did not use upholstery fabric for this. I used a lighter weight cotton fabric that was very inexpensive. And because I used just about 1/4 yard it only cost me less than $2 to cover the seat of this chair)

I checked my seat to see if the cushioning was still thick enough. The batting inside the chair was still nice and fluffed so I did not add any extra. I lined my fabric up on the chair's bottom and wrapped the ends under, kind of like wrapping a gift, making sure everything stayed smooth on the top of the seat and in the corners, then stapled it in place as I went.

Once my chair bottom was covered I used my drill to screw it back into place, again being careful not to get it so tight as to break the wood. Once the chair's bottom was in, and after all the tightening, the chair was nice and sturdy..






Next I took my black paint and my small craft paint brush and painted the caned area of the chair that was discolored, making sure to be very careful not to touch the sides of the chair that were not being painted. I did not sand this because of the type of material it was. It was more porous and did not need to be sanded to hold the paint. After I let the paint dry, I then painted on a light coat of sealant..
Once it was dry then my chair was all ready for use with my vanity.




Total cost, including chair, around $13.50..