furniture

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It’s probably no surprise that I love to host parties and gatherings at my house and volunteer my abode for events whenever possible–my husband totally loves it.  So this past year, when the parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told them, without skipping a beat, FOLDING CHAIRS! Buuuttt….I feel like nothing puts a damper on my party quite like adding some drab, ugly folding chairs to a perfectly planned table setting.  You can imagine the parents’ joy when they granted my Christmas wish and I immediately said, “Oh, I’m so excited! I can’t wait to paint these and recover them.” Queue collective, “Aww, no, don’t do that…they’re perfectly good and new…wait until they’re at least beat up a little….”

I had a little guilt about going against the wishes of the gift-givers, but seriously, these girls were not going to be invited to my parties in this outfit.

How to Makeover Folding Chairs – Do it Yourself Style

I originally set out to do some vintage florals, but plaids have stolen my heart in a big way lately–for some reason whenever I say this, I hear Tim Gunn in my head talking about menswear.  Anyway, I was at Walmart, of all places one day, and found the blue and pink plaid (on the right) in their remnant bin for like $2.00 and knew EXACTLY what I was going to do with the chairs.  The gold, polka dot burlap was not in the original plan, but when you find GOLD, POLKA DOT BURLAP (at Joann’s), you USE IT!  I may need meetings for this burlap addiction because it is quickly appearing all over my house and I can not get enough.

How to Add Cushions to Metal Folding Chairs

Metal folding chairs are a bit uncomfortable. So, if you don’t already have the one’s with cushions you’ll want to add cushions first. This might seem hard if you want to do it yourself but it’s actually easy! The things you’ll need for adding a cushion are below.

Things You’ll Need to DIY:

Spray paint (about one can for each chair)
Fabric (less than 1/2 yard for each chair)
Staple gun (can be purchased for about $10 just about anywhere that sells basic tools)
(4) 1″ screws for each chair

Start by removing the pads from the chair.  On my chairs, the ones on the back just came off by unscrewing three little screws.

The seat cushion was attached with some type of plastic screws so I just clipped the ends off with wire cutters (just something will cut through thick plastic).  DON’T TRY TO PULL THEM OUT.  They have a flat head that’s attached to the wood under the padding and you’ll just rip a hole through the seat–learned that one the hard way.

Then spray paint the chairs.  I used Valspar Brushed Rose and Mellow Spring from Lowe’s.  While the paint is drying, you can upholster your cushions.

Just lay the cushion on the fabric, cut a piece of fabric big enough to pull around it, and staple it down right over the top of the existing fabric.  Make sure to keep it pulled tight, and if you’re using a fabric with a pattern, keep flipping the cushion over as you go to make sure you’re keeping the pattern straight.

Trim the excess fabric and reattach the cushions.  To attach the seat cushions, just drill a new screw up through where the old plastic screw used to be.

And there you have it!  Pretty, party-ready chairs! And when they’re this easy, you can change the fabric for every party if you want!