Instead of starting with our harder projects, I have an easier DIY project to start with. This is not only beginner-friendly, but also very affordable, and you can easily get it done in an afternoon. If you mess it up, you don't have to feel guilty about wasting tons of money, which is a nice comfort on any DIY project.

The first step of the project is finding an old chair from a yard sale, thrift store, etc.  We found our chair for $15 from a local thrift store. Make sure the chair is in good enough structural shape to sit in and that it's comfortable. I tried to find a chair that didn't have too much reupholstering to do. For my first DIY reupholstery project, I wanted something simple and something that didn't require sewing.

Next comes sanding. To sand the chair, I mostly used our hand held orbital sander, which I love. It even has a dust bag so it's extremely easy to use and clean. We liked the idea of having a dark finish, but because the chair was veneer, we had to paint it instead of staining.  If it were solid wood, we probably would have used a dark stain instead of paint.

After I sanded the chair, William had fun kicking out the sides and adding a couple of additional screws to make it sturdier.  I skipped this part to do some fabric shopping, so unfortunately there are no photos of this! I probably used about a yard of fabric for this chair, but bought 2 just in case. Overall, the fabric cost was $30. I also bought some piping for the trim and a one-inch foam panel for the back of the chair in case I wanted to add some upholstery as a back rest.

Once I was back home with the fabric, the chair was ready to be painted.  We wanted it to be a dark, charcoal grey color, but not black.  I took a little bit of a risk here and used Rustoleum automotive primer, along with a satin protective finish by Valspar. (Note: I do not like regular Valspar spray paint, but the Satin finish did just fine.) I couldn't find any colors in "normal" spray paint that I liked, but I actually really liked using the automotive primer and would definitely use it on a future project. The color is really dark without being black, it goes on well, and I like that it's not a gloss finish. It also dries very quickly! For furniture or anything people will touch a lot, I would suggest using a gloss or satin finish coat, not just the primer.

I tried to be a good spray painter and do several light coats and get all the corners, back, and under areas. While the paint was drying, I worked on recovering the seat cushion. This was probably the most labor-intensive part for me because I really wanted to get the fabric pattern centered and the staple gun is hard (for me) to use with one hand while stretching the other side of the fabric in place. It is helpful to have someone on hand for this to call over from time to time, but not completely necessary. It would also be much easier to have a staple gun that is attached to an air compressor. We didn't have the right staples to use with our nail gun, so we went without it this time, but for the next project, I will definitely be buying those staples!



Since the paint was dry by the time I was done with this, I tested out the look and so far, so good! I couldn't decide whether to take the effort to upholster the back panel, so I draped the fabric over it to test out the look. I really liked it and felt like that small detail made the chair seem so much more finished and better for the den, which is where this chair was going.

So, I got to work on the back rest portion of the chair - first, William and I deliberated on how to best get this part done. In the end, we decided to just leave the caning in the back middle portion of the chair and cover the front with the foam panel that I cut to fit. (Remember to put your cushion back in the chair for these measurements - my cushion would not have fit back in the chair had I added foam all the way down!) Then, I just kept the foam in place while I stapled the fabric over it and onto the back.  Once again, I made sure the fabric pattern was lined up and matched the cushion. After I stapled all the way around, I used a utility razor to cut the extra fabric from around the staples. I also used some heavy duty adhesive to the bottom of the fabric (behind the seat cushion) to help everything stay in place. Then, I repeated this process on the back of the chair, but without the foam. This is just to make the chair look more complete and finished.

After the excess fabric is removed, I used glue to add piping all around the edge of the front and back parts of the back rest of the chair. This is to hide any staples. Use a heavy duty glue so your piping holds up! This part was easy and adds a decorative element to the chair.

Finally, admire your finished work and put it in the room! (Our den is still very much in progress, so I'll add a photo of the room when it's more complete.)


For anyone interested, here's a cost breakdown of this chair makeover:

• Thrift store chair: $15
• Fabric: $30 (and I have plenty leftover!)
• Piping: $2
• Foam panel: $3.99 (There are cheaper options but I wanted a high quality, high density foam.)
• Glue: $3.99 (Again, plenty leftover)
• Spray Paint: $9
• Total cost: $64, with materials leftover for future projects

I've seen plenty of "vintage" upholstered arm chairs around the web for $200, $400, even $800, so I'm very happy with my outcome! It's not perfect, but no-sew DIY upholstery is not for perfectionists. I would definitely do this project again!