Shabby Table and Chairs redo

When we moved into our house we bought ALOT of Pottery Barn furniture. I wanted everything to match and it did! Everything is a dark cherry color our large rectangular dining room table, small round nook table, armoire, kitchen, and bathroom cabinets. Very cohesive, yes. But I'm bored with it!

I decided to paint our small round nook table black. It was kinda dinged up and either needed to be re-stained or completely repainted. I chose the latter. The table looked good by itself but the chairs had to go! They are an off white slipcovered chair and the girls used them as a napkin. Seriously they had to be washed every other day and frankly I was sick of it! What was I thinking buying off white slipcovered chairs?!

I mentioned to my Dad one day that I wanted new dining room chairs and he offered to give me a set that he had laying around! Then he called the next week and said he had painted them black for me already! Yippee! I was stoked. So I went over and distressed them a bit (or made them look like I had pulled them out of the dumpster, according to my Dad) and then sealed them. All with Dad's help and his awesome paint gun! I got them home and it all looked really good together. There was just one problem, they weren't very comfortable and it still looked kind of bland.

So I decided to add a cushion to them! I got online and started googling laminate or vinyl fabrics since I didn't want to be washing them all the time like the other chairs. I found this fabric by Amy Butler from her new Love line of designer cotton laminate.

I ordered it from Ms. Sabrina over at  Grace and London on Etsy. She had the best prices on etsy and shipped it to me super fast. I had it within 2 days of payment!

Materials List:
Foam (I chose 2" foam, but pick whatever you like)
Fabric ( I needed about 2 yards, but measure you chair bottoms to be sure)
Staple gun

First take the bottom seat part off of the chair. Just turn it over and unscrew it. Be careful not to unscrew the legs though...that wouldn't be good!

Then lay the seat bottom on the foam and trace it. Then cut it with an electric knife, like the kind you use to cut a turkey on Thanksgiving. OR take your seat bottom to the store and have them do this step for you. I got my foam at a store down on 4th Avenue called a Fabric and Foam Store. They were very helpful in helping me pick just the right amount of foam even though I forgot my measurements and gave them a rough guesstimate. I splurged on foam because I wanted the  cushions to last awhile. But you could totally get it at JoAnn's with a coupon. Even still it was only about $30 and I've got some leftover to make the girls some cushions for their little chairs.

Next layer your foam on top of your seat bottom then place you fabric right side up on top of the two. Then turn it over. Staple one side down, then pull taught and staple the opposite side down. You should have something that looks like this.

Then do the two other sides in the same way. You should have something that looks like this...

Then do an upholstery tuck on each corner so that the seam points toward the back of the chair. The corner seams should look like this.

And the underside should look like this.

Then trim the excess fabric and screw it back onto your chair. On the first cushion I glued down the edges but you really don't need to so I didn't do it on the other 3. YEAH! New dining room chairs! With a nice bright pop of color!

Next up...those white slipcovers. I thought I could either die them a dark burgundy red to go with the darkest color in the Amy Butler fabric OR making new covers for them completely. I think I will die them first and if I don't like the color then I'll find another fabric to make them some new slipcovers!

Linking up to Ms. Jennifer @ tatertotsandjello! First link up ever with one of my favorite bloggers!