before & after: reupholstered chair

I wanted to share another thrift store furniture project.  I bought this chair this past summer at Salvation Army for $25.  It kind of looks like an old office chair.



The first step was to take off all of the old fabric and batting.  This part was the most time consuming because it seemed like there were a million staples in that sucker.  Next, I sanded down the legs and then stained them with Minwax stain in Dark Walnut from Home Depot.  After two coats of stain (with drying in between), I added a layer of poly.  Since the original padding was in pretty good shape, I opted to just add some batting over the old padding.  Here are pictures of the chair before the batting.



I reupholstered the chair using Schooner Nautical print fabric I found at Big Y Yardage Outlet.  For the back, I added some decorative nails from Jo-Ann's (Dritz Decorative Nails 7/16" in Antique Brass).  For the arms and apron, I used cotton cording from Jo-Ann's to create some piping.

The chair now sits in our guest bedroom which has a nautical theme to it.  It's amazing what some wood stain and new fabric can do for an old chair.