DIY Chair Make-over

Our first year in Arizona, Brad and I scored a dining room table set on craigslist for a decent price. I instantly loved the table because its actually real wood, has great grooves in the tabletop, and gorgeous legs. Plus, its secondhand, so it has great character with all its dents and scratches. The chairs on the other hand, not so gorgeous. They have really wide wicker seats that are not comfortable in any way. Plus, the wicker was old and coming out in places. The wood was solid though and plus, they were better than the folding chairs we were previously using! So the set became ours for a low negotiated price.

Fast forward to this past fall for the story of a chair and its journey to DIY fabulous...to match the table of course. Oh yeah, and everything needs to be multiplied by four because there are four chairs.

First step - remove all the wicker. Not as easy as we expected.

Despite the loose poke-y pieces, that wicker didn't want to budge. Brad and I got a little creative, and definitely a lot messy, figuring out how to get it off. 

What was left was a rickety seat frame that was not so solid with out all the wicker holding it together. Being all that is man, Brad quickly traced and cut a brand new seat so we could just toss the old one. Yeah, he was pretty impressed with himself. 

The second step was to actually put something on that wood seat. Except it didn't happen right away - the chair stayed exactly like this for a good month before we finally got motivated again. My friend, Julie, and I covered the seats using foam, cotton batting, and the fabric I had found. Having never upholstered anything before, it was a guess and check game at first. But we got it down and I have to say I'm pleased with the result! Ignore my bad hair day please (although you can tell time has passed since its significantly lighter from the above pictures).

After putting some tack on the bottom to finish off the seat, you know, make it look professional and all, the seat was done. Then it was Brad's turn to figure out how to attach the seat to the chair. Originally the seat was screwed on through the wicker on the top, so there was nothing for Brad to work with on the bottom. He invented his own way of attaching the seat, as shown below. It worked pretty well if I do say so myself.

Yes, this happened at one point.

And viola! The finished chair! Did you remember to multiply all those steps by four?

We are really pleased with the end result. I like the graphic pattern and the fabric because it helps break up all the wood of the table and chairs. Brad likes finally having a comfortable seat to sit in (and I'm sure he liked using his power tools too). I am big into DIY, but it is definitely hard to do all the stuff I dream about when we live in an apartment. That doesn't stop me from stalking home improvement blogs though.