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The power of paint strikes again. Painted bamboo chair makeover.

It has been quite awhile since I have painted a piece of furniture. When you are out thrifting with your bestie and you find a pair of side chairs for just $5 each, you quickly decided to make some room! Let me show you my painted bamboo chair makeover.

Actually I should say “chairs” , but the treatment is the exact same for both of them.

Welcome to this months At Home DIY challenge! Happily, it’s all about paint projects! 

While we are on the subject, what style would you say these chairs are? Bamboo, chinoiserie, Hollywood regency? I have seen them referred to as all of these. For this post I will just call them bamboo style.

After doing a bit of research, I found out that these particular chairs came in this creamy finish and a dark stained wood finish. The cushion fabric is original and over time the finish has a bit of a pinky glow.

Imagine my surprise this week when I did an online search for more information and stumbled upon this:

Can you believe it? Remember I only paid $5 for each chair. Score for me!

How to Paint the bamboo chair

• remove seat cushions
• save the screws
• remove cushion from the chair base
• use pliers to remove staples from the bottom of the seat cushion
• using spray paint, add a light coat of paint
• spray a second coat and check for complete coverage

Tips

When doing a tutorial post, don’t paint the chairs the exact same color as the tarp 😂Also, at this point I realized that the paint color was too bright of a blue for my home. Also, when starting this project I led with my heart and not my head. I fell in love with this fabric and pulled the blue from there. While this is a gorgeous combo, it is not the correct tones for my house.

So, I had some adjusting to do. I couldn’t repaint the chairs because I don’t have a yard at my townhouse. Painting had been done in Jenn’s backyard. Plus, I needed to find some new inspiration fabric and figure out how to tone down the brightness of the blue.

Disclaimer – I am not a professional refinisher, but this method work for me. In my stash I had a dark gel stain (not shown). The gel stain wash added onto the bamboo chair with a soft lint-free cloth. After a couple of minutes, I wiped the stain off. It was the perfect solution as you will see later in this post.

When I am recovering a bench or seat cushion, I typically use the previous cover as my pattern.

There is NO way I was letting this come anywhere near my gorgeous new chinoiserie fabric. Isn’t this gross?

How to recover the seat cushion

In my opinion, the seats needed a little more oomph. The existing ones were so flat that I upgraded to 2″ foam. This foam was leftover from the upholstered bench and no sew pillow project.

• use the wood seat platform as a patter.
• with a Sharpie pen or marker, trace 2 seat patterns
• using a sharp blade or knife, carefully cut the foam on the trace lines
• lay your foam cutouts on top of the fabric to determine which part of the fabric pattern you want to use.
• cut out two pieces, leaving a 2-3 inch fabric allowance.

Isn’t this pagoda fabric fabulous?!

Using a staple gun, staple the cushion fabric in place.

Tack all four sides in place, making sure the fabric is taut. Firmly fold and staple the corners as well. Screw the seat cover back in place.

Admire your work!

 

 

Needless to say, I am thrilled with this makeover!

I hope that you are too! Drop a comment and let me know what you think.

Don’t forget to Pin this to your favorite Pinterest Board!

Be sure to look through the other paint projects from this month’s challenge! Just click the link or photo below!

See More Update With Paint Projects