Sawdust 2 Stitches

Modern Chair UpCycle

Hey sports fans.  I am VERY excited to introduce you to a new member of the Sawdust 2 Stitches team!  April is an amazing  blogger and talented diy’er, and lucky for us,  you will be seeing more of here around here!

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

WELCOME April, and take it away….

Hi, I’m April from Uncookie Cutter.  I am so excited to be contributing here at Sawdust 2 Stitches.  Corey has been an idol of mine for awhile, so getting to work with her is a treat. I’m here to share my modern dining chair upcycle.Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

A little about me…In January of this year, my husband and I packed up our two kids and three dogs and moved from Virginia to small town Oklahoma.  I told my Realtor I wanted a new house in a new neighborhood.  As it turned out, we couldn’t find one that we really feel in love with–there always seemed to be something missing.  Then, on a whim, our Realtor showed us what she described as a very “UncookieCutter” house and after a million inspections and with a bit of fear, we decided to go for it.  We loved the layout,  the huge yard and the fact that we could all bike right down the road to the elementary school. However, it needed a lot of work, so I started UncookieCutter to document our journey here trying to make this house a home.

For the past couple of months I’ve been working in the dining room.  I upcycled an old piece of wood into a hanging shelf and then built my concrete top table, inspired by Restoration Hardware.  Everything was going so well until I realized how expensive dining chairs were.  I have never bought a traditional dining set, we’ve been eating off of a cheap 4 person set for years.  We could never have people over for dinner, because we had nowhere to sit.  The size of our dining room won’t allow for much more than a 8 person table, so that’s what I built.  I needed six side chairs.  I wanted them to not have fabric (remember the kids and dogs I mentioned?) and I wanted them to look a little modern, funky and fit with a table with a concrete top.  So I searched and found THESE chairs, which I thought were beautiful.

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However, these chairs cost $168 a piece.  That would’ve cost me over $1,000 plus the cost of the end chairs.  I floated this by my husband, who just laughed.  Rude.  Anyway, I had to come up with another idea.

So I honestly thought about making chairs, but a good chair has a slight backwards lean to it and unfortunately I don’t have the saw to make cuts like that.  So, I needed to find some old chairs with solid bases and, low and behold, after a LOT of searching, I found some!  I couldn’t believe it, but a library was closing in a nearby, even smaller, town and I grabbed one to bring home and see what I could do with it.  I turned it into a chair that was similar to the one I wanted, but actually fit in the space better and cost about $20 per chair, making it $120 for six.  Score!

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

The fabric was in pretty bad shape, but the frame seemed strong, so I got to work ripping the fabric off.

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

Once I had all the fabric off and removed all the zillion or so staples, I sanded the whole frame down and filled the staple holes with stain-able and sand-able wood filler.  Then more sanding until they were all smooth.

Next, I had to make the seat for the chair. I took some craft paper and made a rough template a little bigger than I wanted it.

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

I cut one board template with my circular saw and used that template to cut out the rest, but left a little extra to allow for slight changes from chair to chair.

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

Like I said, I cut the boards too big on purpose, but worked with my jigsaw until they fit right into the back of the chair, then I traced each board so that I could cut the seat to match up to the frame exactly.

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

I bought some very pretty “craft board” in the lumber section, but I think any plywood would work.  This was made from real wood and I love the grain it shows.  Now I had to figure out how to make the top piece for the chair back.  Most chairs have a curved back to make them a little more comfortable.  Like I mentioned before, I don’t have too many fancy power tools, but I still wanted to bend the back a little bit. My father in law was visiting as I was trying to figure it out, and he told me about a presentation he once saw where they soaked the boards in water and then bent them, so I decided to give that a shot.

I cut the pieces down to size and then put them in a pan of water.  Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

Yes, I realized I should not leave my jig in water, I moved it and replaced it with a flower pot, but forgot to take a picture of that :).   I left it soaking in the water for a day or more.  Then I took it out and “molded” it to the top of the chairs with clamps. Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

Once I got it just so, I let it sit out in the sun until it was completely dry.

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

I learned a couple of things trying to “bend” wood.  First, it has to be soaked all the way through or it will crack.  This will take at least a day for this size board.  Next, you have to let it dry in the mold completely or it will loose it’s shape when you take it off to stain.  And lastly, if you look at the pic above, I should have tried to make the grain of the board run horizontal instead of vertical.  I did it this way because I wanted to use every piece of the board, and it worked, but I did crack a couple and I think they would not have cracked had I gone the other way with it.

Once it was nice and dry I went ahead and popped it off to be painted.

Now that the chairs were stripped, filled and sanded and both of the seats and backboards were cut out and “molded” I was ready to paint.  I wanted the chair part to look like metal, and I’ve always been impressed with Rustoleum Metallic spray paints, but since I had six chairs and a small budget, I decided to stain them with some leftover stain and then spray paint them. So I started by staining them with Minwax Ebony.

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

Then I spray painted them all with Rustoleum Flat Iron. I then put a couple of coats of spray poly on.

Next, I painted the seats and backs with one light coat of Minwax Special walnut to start

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

When the stain was all dry,  I mixed a small mixture of leftover white trim paint with water (about 50/50 mix) and used a paper towel to lightly rub it over and blend it in.  Then 3 coats of polyurethane.

It worked better to finish the back of the backboard piece and leave the front unfinished for now.  Then I re-clamped it onto the chair, and then countersunk some screws into the board and attached it to the chair.

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

I waited to finish it so that I could sand down the holes without messing up the stain.  Once it was attached,  I went ahead and finished the front side.

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

The last thing I did before bringing them in was I glued the seats to the chairs.

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

Once they were inside, I added these feet.  I tried a couple of different furniture feet and these were the only ones that slid nicely, didn’t fall off and didn’t scratch my floors.

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

Now they really were done!  I got them all set up with my table, which you can see all the details on that HERE.

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

So, instead of spending over a grand, I spent about $120 on boards, stain and spray paint to upcycle these old chairs.

Modern Chair UpCycle - UncookieCutter for Sawdust 2 Stitches

That was it!  And they are actually pretty comfortable.  I’d love for you to visit me over on UncookieCutter or follow me on social media.  A big, huge thank you to Corey for asking me to guest host and I’ll be back soon for some more!

 

April – Uncookie Cutter

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Comments

  3. Trudi says

    Great job on these chairs! Unique vision for a really pitiful chair. The outcome is great! (Loved the bending wood tip too!)

  4. Leah says

    I think you did a great job reproducing your inspiration chair. My only objection is that having the boards so high might not make the most comfortable sitting in them. How are they to sit in?

    • April R @Uncookie Cutter says

      Hi Leah! I actually had the exact same worry. I made one and made a ton of people sit in it for their opinion and it was actually very comfortable. Even my six year old likes it (surprisingly)! I did like that is sat above the table line, so I went with it. Thanks for asking!

  9. Sara @ Shabby Grace Blog says

    April, I’m so happy for you! Congrats on joining the Sawdust 2 Stitches team! You go girl. Your chairs turned out amazing! I LOVE LOVE the look of them. You did an awesome job. I love your transformations! You can tackle some big jobs. Great work girl!

  11. Becky says

    Fantastic job, April! These are amazing. Beautiful wood grain, great colors, nice fitting, all around good work. I love it when a DIY comes out looking better than its inspiration! Well done.

  17. Ashleigh says

    This is a great post, thank you for sharing how to do this! I have so many chairs that need love!

  18. Kim says

    Oh April, they are just gorgeous! Fantastic job and I love all the things you are learning and passing on to the rest of us. Truly, a GREAT post and project.

  20. Sydney @ Tastefully Frugal says

    These chairs are gorgeous! I’ve seen these exact chairs and swooned over them but, like you, couldn’t justify the price tag when I need 6. I may need to find some old chairs and make my own. Thanks for the GREAT tutorial!

  21. Crystal says

    I love this idea. I never thought of stripping down a Parsons chair. I’ve been on the lookout for the perfect chairs to redo for our farmhouse table. This opens up so many more options. Thanks!

  22. Mary-In the boondocks says

    These chairs look great. Bravo to you for not going out and spending a fortune. They look great and they also look very sturdy. They match your dining room table (which I looooove) and so you have a win-win here.

  25. Kim~madeinaday says

    What an awesome upcycle! I see those chairs all the time while junkin! Love the transformation! Thank you so much for sharing this pin on the P3 party Board! I love it and it will be featured on the blog and my social media Friday! So look for a little traffic from me!
    Best,
    Kim

  26. Terry says

    Just saying…. I like your chair better than the inspiration chair! Holy Talented! Well done! I hope you have a great day!
    Smiles!
    Terry
    P.S.
    I’d love it if you would share this at my Making Broken Beautiful Party if you have time to stop in and inspire! :0)

  27. Terry says

    So happy you joined in the fun tonight! You do such nice work! Thank you for sharing at Making Broken Beautiful this week!
    Smiles!
    Terry

  28. Pili says

    These chairs are awesome! The trick for bending the wood is simply genius! And the best part is that you ended up paying 120 instead of 1,000!!
    Hugs,

    Pili

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