Queen Anne Chair Gets a Makeover

I found this little gem at the Habitat for Humanity Restore in Montgomery, AL. She was $8 and although the chair was in great condition the seat was ugly fuzzy blue and stained. But I just knew I could give her makeover and a new life. Here’s a step by step tutorial on how to spray paint a chair, and how to recover the chair seat. Enjoy!

Furniture Refinishing

This project is very similar to the Refinished End Table project from early this week. For the chair refinishing you will need spray primer, spray paint, water based sealer, a foam brush, a sanding block, palm sander, screwdriver, nails, hammer and a few clean cloths.

 

 

 

 

First flip the chair inside and use your screwdriver to remove the screws which attach the seat cushion. Set the seat cushion aside and place your chair on a protected service. With your palm sander and 100-150 grit sand paper carefully sand all of the surfaces so that the wood no longer appears shiny.

Take a small finish nail and your hammer and put a nail into the bottom of each of the chair legs. This will allow you to spray paint the bottom of the chair legs while you are refinishing the rest of the piece and keeps your newly painted surface from sticking to the protection below.

Take your clean cloth and wipe down the entire piece so that it is free of debris and start to apply your primer in light coats giving each layer adequate time to dry. Use care not to over apply the paint in a single coat or you could develop some drips or other paint imperfections.

Once the piece is primed use your sanding block and carefully sand the paint so you have a smooth and even finish throughout the piece. Start to paint the chair the color of your choice again using several thin coats which dry in between.

Sand your chair a final time once all the surfaces are fully coated and wipe clean with a clean cloth. Use your foam brush and apply a thin coat of water based sealer over the entire piece. Take care not to let the sealer create drips or pools around the edges. Although the majority of your sealer application will dry clear, thicker deposits may cause a milky residue on your refinished furniture. Let your piece fully dry.

Recovered Chair Seat

You’ll need fabric, scissors, a staple gun and 3/8″ staples to recover your chair cushion. It’s also a great idea to have an ironing board and iron handy in case there are any wrinkles or folds in your fabric. The seat of my chair’s original seat and backer board had plenty of life lift in it, so there was no need to start the seat from scratch.

My black and white chevron fabric is
Premier Prints ZigZag Black/Whiteand came from Fabric.com and is made by Premier Prints. I’ve used this fabric for a LOT of Chevron projects and really love the quality and all of the colors they have available.

Lay your fabric face down on your work surface and lay your seat cushion on top. Take care to align and orient fabric so that the pattern matches the look you are going for. Use your scissors to trim your fabric to the shape of the sheet leaving 3-4 of overhand around all the edges of the cushion. (You may need more depending on the height of your seat cushion.)

With your fabric pattern side down set the cushion down on the fabric with the hard backing of the cushion facing up towards you. Fold the first side of the fabric over the straight cushion edge and secure using your staple gun to the cushion base. Choose the left or right side next and do the same, leaving the corner unsecured.

Take the fabric that is left in the corner and create a clean flat fold so that the fabric doesn’t bunch up. Secure each side of the corner fold as shown below.

Continue this same method to secure the fabric around the remainder of the cushion. Pull the fabric tight, but not so tight it creates wrinkles in the cushion.

Next drape the remainder of your fabric over the back of the chair and trim so that it is about 1″ smaller than the outside of the cushion base. Secure over the back to create a finished look using your staple gun and staples. Enjoy your newly refinished chair!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now reattach the seat cushion to the refinished chair base by flipping upside down and reattaching the screws, or placing new screws. My chair’s cushion wasn’t attached when I brought her home, so I used # 8 x 1 1/2″ screws for mine.

 

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