I remember being at a garage sale and seeing these chairs for sale. I gave them a really good look-over, but for whatever reason I just didn't feel like tackling them. Then a week later as I was driving by the same house, I saw them sitting on the curb for garbage pick-up. I made a HAUL that day actually from curbs, as you can see in the next photo!
Now folks, I have taken on some daunting furniture. Like whoa-way-beyond-hope furniture. But for some reason these chairs INTIMIDATED ME. And so they sat in my attic. And sat, and sat, and sat. Like some of you are doing during this quarantine on Netflix. GET OFF NETFLIX. Like, go fly a kite. Or cut your bangs. Or make some DIY hand sanitizer. Youtube how to taxidermy the mouse you caught in the trap. I don't care, just do something!
Here's a close up of the shape these were in. All superficial really - they were sturdy chairs with great bones! (Well, at least yhey didn't wobble one bit when my whole ninety two pounds sat in them. I 'spose I should ask my much bigger hubby to try them out).
The bottom cushions ended up being a piece of cake. Three screws held them in place under the chair and then I ripped the vinyl off and recovered them with a thick faux black fur fabric.
Fun fact: the fabric was left over from decades back when my Grandma used to make chicken door stoppers and sell them at craft shows. I tried to find a picture of the chickens, but can't. Shucks.
Next, I painted all the wood with white chalk paint. I honestly had no plan for the black pleather backs. I was hoping I could maybe just leave them as is, since they weren't in too bad of shape. No rips like the seats. But they looked tacky with the fur cushions and also I wasn't careful enough and splattered some bits of paint on the vinyl so I thought what the heck, let's chalk paint the vinyl backs too!
I put a couple coats of my DIY chalk paint on the vinyl and then let them sit and cure. Actually sit and cure FOR WEEKS. I had a lot going on in my life in the middle of this project, so letting the paint cure for a few weeks was actually easy. Then, I'd come back and do another coat. Let that sit a week, and do another coat! I used a super fine sandpaper to go over the painted vinyl to smooth it out. Otherwise the chalk paint has a very rough feel to it. I also used sandpaper (with a lower grit) to distress all the wood edges.
Sorry, I wasn't thinking and didn't really snap photos during the process.
But here are the final results. I'm PRETTY SURE these chairs will hold up well. I'm hanging on to them for awhile to make sure before I attempt to sell them. Maybe I'll have a barn sale this summer and I'll put them up for sale then.
Ready for the reveal???
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