Refinished Desk Chair

Hey y’all. Hope you’re doing well today.

I wanted to share a quick face-lift to an old chair. I’m not sure if you remember, but back in the fall I bought Dallas a desk and we had a little change in color to her room.

I can’t wait to share with you all the details to her room. It’s coming together, but even though I started in October, believe it or not it’s still not completely finished.

I digress…

Today I wanted to show you how I changed a tired, old chair and turned it into a cute desk chair for my daughter.

After buying the desk {and leaving the coordinating chair at Good Will}, I went in search for a chair. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money because it is for a child after all, and not a lot of money needed to be spent on it.

So, I went to a local antique shop and found this great chair. It was an old dining room chair and sat all by its lonesome…and even better, it cost $10.00.

I’ll take it!!!

I decided to paint it white and change the seat cover…and that is what I did.

I sanded down the chair, primed, and painted it.

While it dried, I worked on the seat cover.

I was really excited about the fabric because I found some cute lavender and white zebra print fabric that would be perfect.

Well, it wasn’t as simple as just throwing some fabric on top and calling it a day. There was a little more that needed to be done.

First, I “primed” the seat cover if you will with just a piece of a white sheet that I had and use for lining sometimes.

I pulled the fabric tight and stapled it around the underside.

Next I had to make some piping for the cover. I cut lots of strips of the zebra fabric and cut a piece of piping rope that would fit around the perimeter of the seat.

Making piping is not hard…in fact it’s quite simple. But one thing you must have to do this is a zipper foot for your sewing machine – believe me I found out the hard way.

Once you have your zipper foot on your sewing machine you’re good to go.

I took a piece of the strips that I cut and wrapped it around the piping rope.

I put the piping rope as close to the zipper foot as I could get it…this is why you need a zipper foot. It allows you to get super close to things.

When I reached close to the end of the strip I would overlap a new one and keep sewing until all the rope was covered.

Once the piping was made, I laid the piece of fabric over the seat. I then laid the piping around the edge and pinned it to the fabric.

In doing this, I found that I had to lay it print side up and make sure all the stitching was going to be on the outside of the piping.

And I sewed the piping to the fabric. I made sure the zipper foot again was as close to the piping as I could get it.

Once it was sewn on I placed it on top of the seat, wrapped it as tight as I could, and stapled the fabric to the underside of the seat. The I trimmed any excess fabric.

And…Wha-laa…a new seat for my little princess’ desk.

As you can see that with a little paint and some fabric you can turn and old, tired chair into something new and happy again.

She loves sitting in her chair at her new desk doing her homework or playing school.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope this has inspired you to try and fix up an old tired piece of furniture you find around your house or the next yard sale you happen upon.

Y’all come back now!

S~