From Dining to Patio Chair via White Vinyl Fabric

The Find

Quite a while ago I found a pair of black metal dining chairs with tan "suede" seats (definitely some kind of polyester fabric) that were just kind of...meh.  

Uninspiring.  

Uninspiring chair pair.

A friend was looking for some patio furniture, for which painted metal furniture is pretty well suited. The result of the design consultation was that recovering the chair seats in white vinyl would be a good makeover option. Vinyl is wipe-able and that is a convenient factor in outdoor furniture which gets dusty and exposed to the elements. Onward I went with the seat recovering.

The Makeover Results

The white vinyl fabric was a little thicker the original polyester suede, and thus harder to make perfect corners with, oh well. I think it turned out out very serviceable. 

Chair Pair

Conclusion and Makeover Bonus

Soon after delivering the recovered chairs I found a set of two matching lumbar pillows. Score! The blue pillows on white seats give a nice ocean-inspired vibe to this little corner.

Chair Pair and Pillow Pair

Happy freestyling, don't be afraid of a little chair seat recovering project!

From Curtains to Cushion Covers

The Find

Some lovely people left a set of paisley curtains and linen sheer curtains out on the curb, with an even lovelier note that the curtains had been dry cleaned and were free for the taking.  Thank YOU considerate givers!

Ready to go!

Paisley close-up

The Re-Use

I wasn't quite sure what project would use up ALL the fabric, but it was clear that making new seat covers for some thrift store chairs would be a good use for some of the fabric.  We had purchased a set of 4 wooden chairs from the thrift store with lovely lines but less-than-comfortable seats.

Thrift store chair

The first step was the remove the seats from the frame, and then remove as many staples from the chair bottom as possible.  I discarded the old foam and batting.

Wooden seat disassembly

All the seats got new foam for cushioning, definitely NOT free, but worth it for a comfortable place to sit.

Foam in package

Due to the size of the chair seats, we needed 4 separate pieces of foam.  I laid the wooden seat onto each piece of foam in order to draw the outline.

Ready to trace the outline

After cutting and shaping the top of the foam with a slight curve I cut out the required amount of fabric for each seat cover. No photos from these steps, but there are lots of tutorials online. I used a medium-duty staple gun to staple the fabric to the bottom of the wooden seat, carefully checking for fabric wrinkles and pulling the fabric taut as I stapled along each side.

Conclusion

The chairs turned out great, much more comfortable with the new foam!  There was plenty of leftover fabric, so I had some special help in making a table runner out of the same fabric.  Now that's coordination!

Newly recovered chair seat

Happy freestyling! May the freestyling force be with you wherever the galaxy takes you.