Trash to Treasure Chair Makeover

I'm so excited to share today's post with you! I've teamed up with a group of bloggers for a monthly challenge series! Each month, we'll complete a different challenge and share our results with you. This month's challenge was to revamp something we thrifted at a yard sale or thrift store. Fun, right?!

Check out all of the awesome projects! 

Erin at Meadow Lake Road- Upcycled Metal Paper Organizer 

 Stacey at Addison Meadows Lane- Salvaged Wooden Silverware Caddy

Leslie at Oh, the Fun!- Customized Curtains

Jenny at Refresh Living- Vintage Sewing Chair

Here's my trash to treasure project!

I was on the hunt for a chair for our playroom desk. Little Man loves to color at the desk and has been borrowing the breakfast nook chair for months. Time to get him his own chair! :)

I came up empty handed after stopping in at Goodwill, but struck gold at the first yard sale I went to! I found this little beauty with a $20 price tag and haggled it down to $10. It's a sturdy chair in good condition. The only blemish was some broken strands on the rush seat. It was previously painted dark green and had a rough, primitive vibe going on. It actually pained me a bit to paint over it since it was in good condition, but it really clashed with our playroom.

I felt like the tall, pointy chair back was a bit too primitive for a playroom, so Jeremy cut a couple inches off the top and rounded the tops with his sander.

I painted the chair with Sherwin Williams All Surface Enamel Paint in Surfer lightened to 75% strength. I am really happy with the paint! It is very thick and goes on with a lot of brush strokes, so I was worried it would look horrible. But, it leveled out nicely and dried smooth! The best part? I simply did two coats--no priming or polyurethane needed!

Images via Sherwin Williams

After I painted the chair, I prepped the rush seat for upholstery. The seat was not removable, so I had to get creative and figure out a way to recover it. I flipped the chair upside down and screwed skinny, thin pieces of wood around the perimeter of the seat bottom to give the upholstery staples something to go into. I started with paint sticks, but after one split, I switched to wood shims.

Finally, I placed my upholstery foam, covered and stapled the seat in a layer of batting, then finished with my fabric. To keep the extra fabric from hanging down and being visible, I hot glued the excess to the bottom of the rush seat. Problem solved! Sorry I don't have pictures of this part! I'm really kicking myself! Hubby was sick, so I was doing this by myself, trying to get done before the kids woke up from their naps. #excuses ;)

I love this fabric that I found at a nearby fabric outlet! It's an outdoor fabric, so it's extra durable.

Here's the finished chair in the playroom!

I'm loving the chair in the room, although that red desk top is really making me twitch! I've been planning on replacing it with a white desktop, but have gotten several comments from people loving the red which has me second guessing. What do you think? Leave me a comment with your vote- go white or leave it red!

Little Man is so excited to have his own chair! He keeps telling me, "You did a great job on my chair, Mommy!" and "I love my new chair, Mommy!" So sweet!

Now we are one step closer to being finished in the playroom! Hooray!

Don't forget to check out the other awesome projects from this month's challenge! They are all amazing!


Linking up to Savvy Southern Style and many other awesome blogs!