DIY Wooden Chair Makeover

If you want to decorate your home on a budget, it is so easy! You can take a cheap, ordinary chair and make it beautiful. I am showing you my DIY wooden chair makeover in hopes that it will help you fix up a chair for your own home or as a gift for someone else.

I am going to show you step by step how to fix up a wooden chair.

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Step 1: Choose the Chair & Material

Turning an ordinary chair into something special can be fun. You first need to decide what kind of chair you would like to have for yourself or maybe to give as a gift.

I like to choose chairs that are small and have a cushion to recover. You can choose a different type of chair, but some chairs require a lot more work!

First you should have a specific fabric in mind. I found some material for only a few dollars a yard. If you can’t find cheap fabric, try finding some on sale at places like JoAnn Fabrics. You can also use coupons to get even more money off. You can even get 15% cash back at JoAnn Fabrics using the Ibotta app.

After you have decided on a theme for your chair (I chose Star Trek for one and Harry Potter for another), then you choose a chair that fits your theme.

A theme could be something like I picked, or it could just be a decor style that you like.

I don’t like to spend a lot of money, so I usually look at garage sales, thrift stores, or flea markets. I try not to spend more than $5 for a chair.

When choosing a chair, you will want to choose one that is sturdy and has no cracks.

For the Star Trek chair, I found a modern, sleek chair since Star Trek takes place in the future.

For the Harry Potter chairs, I found ones with scroll work and other details to look more like something that would be in a castle.

Step 2: Remove the Cushion

First, you turn the chair over and unscrew the screws to remove the cushion.

Then, you take the staples out of the cushion to remove the cover.

Sometimes you can use the former cover as a pattern. If the foam or whatever the cushion is made of is flat, you will have to add more padding.

Step 3: Prep the Chair

After you have your chair taken apart, you can start working on it.

It needs to be lightly sanded in order for the paint to stick.

After you sand it, you should wipe it down to get rid of any dust.

Step 4: Paint the Chair

Painting it first with primer will help the paint stick. If you don’t wish to brush paint, there are spray paints with primer in them already to save you a step.

Brush painting may be cheaper if you already have leftover house paint lying around.

I try to use semi-gloss paint so it can be wiped off.

You will probably need to paint at least 2 coats of paint. Try to paint even coats, and make sure that there are no thin spots.

Step 5: Recover the Seat

Now you can cut out your material. You can use the old cover as a pattern or just lay the wood seat piece on the material and cut around it.

Make sure to leave enough material to pull to the bottom of the chair and staple.

Before you staple the material, you will want to make sure that the material is turned in the right direction. The picture should be facing you when you are facing the chair.

I drew circles around the screw holes so that I could see where the holes were when I was stapling the material. You can cut the material around the holes as well.