DIY Folding Chair & Bench Reupholster Makeover

I'm so pumped I can finally share this fun furniture reupholster DIY with all of you! The final products have been sprucing up my room for weeks and I just can't keep them to myself anymore. This is actually a 2 part DIY, so you may be inspired by one or the other, or both. For me, the first part was inspired by a chair DIY that I spotted on Pinterest that I immediately knew I wanted to try myself. The second part just seemed like an obvious choice for a followup project.

I've had these old chairs taking up space on my front porch since the day I moved into my apartment. They've never been used, as they look far from inviting. Considering the chairs were over 10 years old (one of them still had its Ames price sticker on it) I'm not surprised that they were a bit beat up. 

I ended up only reupholstering one of the chairs because the screws on the other were stripped beyond repair. But that was ok with me because it paved the way for part 2 of the project. Before beginning the makeover process, I made sure to clean the chair from head to toe. I removed the seat from the frame first to make it easier to clean. My chair also had a back cushion, but because it wasn't attached by screws I just had to rip it off. Then, I gave the frame a new look by spraying it with a couple of coats of Krylon - Catalina Mist spray paint and left it to dry.

While the frame was drying, I got to work on the reupholstering. The seat cushion wasn't really in the worst shape, so I decided to keep it. I removed the old fabric from the seat and replaced it with new fabric. To do this, just stretch the new fabric over the cushion and fold it under itself along the edges for a clean look. Using a staple gun, staple the fabric to the bottom of the seat. Start stapling at the center of each side and work your way out to the corners.

I thought it might be tricky to attach the fabric with the staple gun to the back cushion because of the shape, but it ended up being just as easy as the straight edged seat. After the paint had dried on the chair frame, it was time to put the cushions back in place. I attached the back cushion to the chair using E600 industrial strength glue and let it set for 48 hours.

The seat cushion was easy to put back in place, as it just required a couple of screws. At this point I was bummed that I wasn't going to be able to have a matching chair set since I wasn't able to makeover my second chair. I decided that I needed to give this chair a matching piece of some sort so I moved along to Part 2...

I've had this little bench for years and years. I love it because it appears simple, but if you look closely, all 4 of it's legs are different. I feel like that unique flair is just my style! It used to be my piano bench way back when, but has since just been a place to stack books and papers. It clearly needed a makeover as well.

First things first, since the bench was black I had to prime it before spray painting it. After it was primed, I finished it with the same mint color I had used for the chair.

Since this bench never had a cushion before, I went out and bought cushion foam for it from Joann Fabrics. I stapled the edges of the foam to the top of the bench so that it would stay in place once I attached the fabric on top. The fabric was stapled the same way as it was on the seat - starting in the center and working my way out to the corners.

I decided to get rid of my bulky office furniture and replace it with these new pieces, and I'm loving my work space so much more now! It's way more fun doing work when you're surrounded by funky colors and patterns!

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