Chair Facelift Part 1

I picked up 3 chairs (2 were the same and the other was ugly just part of the deal) on Craigslist for $45. The plan was to use the matching pair for the ends of the nook table. They were pretty beat up, but I was going to paint them and reupholster the seat. Honestly, I have been itching to try upholstery and a chair bottom like this is supposed to be the easiest.

I did all my prep work i.e. filling in the gashes, liquid sanding (no way was I going to legitimately sand with those chair curves), and priming. I used Behr Premium Plus Ultra Black Suede in a satin finish.

What was challenging about painting the chairs was the detail in the back. I would paint inside the pattern which always lead to dripping on the front and back no matter how little paint and/or pressure I used. I had to make sure to paint the front then the back and double check both areas before moving down to the next pattern. Two things helped out tremendously…

Floetrol and a small foam brush. The Floetrol helped the flow of my Behr paint (which also includes a primer so it’s pretty thick stuff). It also slows drying time. This was awesome because I needed that time to touch up any drips I had missed. The small foam brush kept me from getting major brush strokes when I was doing those touch ups. Of course there were still some drips, so I sanded them down and touched up again. I’m too much of a perfectionist to let even the smallest drip go unnoticed.

They look a million times better. The black really makes them look more modern even with their traditional lines. I still need to put polyurethane on them because Ramona would have them tore up in a week without that protection. Can’t wait to move on to the upholstery part.

I am also working on painting the table in the nook (and by working on it I mean I will be in like a week). I will post a step by step tutorial when that project wraps up.

*Update: See how the chairs turned out here.