Last month I made a trip to the Atlanta suburbs and did some flea market shopping. (If there’s the potential to find great old furniture at a cheap price, I will visit the suburbs.) I went to A Classy Flee (www.aclassyflee.com) in Marietta and found a junky wood chair for $30 that I thought would be a good addition to my apartment, after it had a coat of paint and a new seat cover. I’ve never recovered a chair before, but I thought it couldn’t be that hard.

Turns out the hardest part was getting myself to finish the project. I finally got around to completing it this past weekend and it wasn’t too difficult. It was hard deciding on the fabric and paint color, which is why it took me so long to finish the chair. I found a great patterned upholstery fabric at Jo-Ann Frabrics. It has some green in it that goes well with my sofa and it also has some purple in it.

After removing the seat and recovering it, I painted the chair. It took two coats, but I was not putting on a thick coat of paint the first time. After it was dry, I took some sandpaper to it because I wanted a distressed look for the chair. It was good to have the old paint color underneath, because I was able to sand down to the old paint color in some parts, and sand completely down to the wood in others.

Here are some pictures of the before and after. I think it turned out okay. If you need chairs recovered or furniture distressed, call me! I have experience!

Before. Old original chair.

After two coats of paint.

After distressing the chair.

Close-up shot of my distressing work.