Before i had my son, my husband and i purchased a beautiful, dark-stained, round dining room table. You know the kind with the “urn” type pedestal under the center? It was such a “big kid” buy and it came with 6, cream upholstered damask high-back chairs. Those were actually a bit formal for my taste, but hey, they came with the table!
Fast forward to present and if you saw my poor, sad (now-in-the-kitchen) table, you might let out a little gasp. It’s a mess. My darling angel has chewed the edges all around the table while teething, he’s run cars across its once-glossy, dark surface leaving streaks of exposed raw wood. He’s pretended to “fix” the table by hammering with all kinds of kiddie tools, and he has absolutely ANNIHILATED that cream upholstery. What can i say? The kid lives on spaghetti and PB & J and he hasn’t got great aim.
Anyway, i’ve been living with the ugliness for far too long. But refinishing the table while he’s 4 seems futile and those stuffy chairs don’t belong in a kitchen anyway.
But then it hit me. Why didn’t i think of it before? If i can’t beat the little house wrecker, i may as well join him. i could makeover some chairs and my table so that they’d only get better with wear and tear!
i’ve banished the cloth chairs to the basement in favor of some very inexpensive replacements. And my 4-year old and i are diligently working on some “shabby chic-ish-hobo-ragdoll-kitchen” chairs.
Here’s the idea and how i’ve executed so far:
Step 1: find cheapo “interesting” wood chairs with upholstered seats on craigslist.com (i paid $75 for 4) – then make your husband do your schlepping and pick them up : )
Step 2: do the laziest, metallic spray paint, then turquoise dry brush, then crackle medium, then gray topcoat paint job imaginable. My little helper made a huge mess assisting me, but that was all in the plan. He loved it.
Step 3: Raid my fabric stash for random, colorful, BUSY (read: camouflage for spaghetti and PB & J) scraps and make some crazy, haphazard PATCHWORK-style (tell ya why later) seat covers. Little man helped with this too. He handed me scraps of his choosing and i zig-zag stitched them on ’til we liked the way it looked.
Step 4: staple up the seat cover and a little extra padding and call it a day.
i looked at my son and thought; you cannot possible make a detectable mark on these crazy, unevenly painted, crackle-i-fied chairs. But if you do, you’re probably just making them BETTER! You cannot possibly make a noticeable stain on these seat covers with their wild, mish-mosh of colors and fabrics. But if you do, who cares!? i’ll cut out an extra patch and slap it right on top. Heck, you can even label the patch to remember the awesome chocolate sundae whose stain it’s covering! And i can live without fear of pasta night or daddy’s too-much-jelly sandwiches.
All that, and i didn’t even have to compromise with a wipe-able seat surface. Nope! i’ll save the wipe-able surfaces for the table makeover. And that’s a post for another day. Right now i need to go do a trial run on one of my chairs after making myself a chocolate sundae.
I’m like my art… a little bit 
Stephanie, I LOVE the chairs! What a great idea. They totally match your style of artwork, too!
thanks lisa! it was about time we injected my kitchen with some color! : ) and i was determined for it to be practical AND pretty : )
This turned out well!! Love it.
thanks vincent. i was SO happy to see the old, boring, stained chairs go : )
Wow! love them! I totally chuckled at “Daddy’s too much jelly sandwiches”
and I 100% agree it’s better to join them then try and beat them:) and much much muuuuuch more fun!
seriously, jen. the man uses entirely too much jelly! it falls out in glops. it saturate the bread. he has issues – haha! i’m so glad you like the result! ; )
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by stephaniecorfee. stephaniecorfee said: RT @scoutiegirlblog: wake. create. repeat. @stephaniecorfee creates an oh-so-chic chair makeover a 4 year old can't destroy! http://bit.ly/c7cuJC [...]
Wow, this turned out amazing! Seriously, I love everything about it! The patchwork fabric really makes it!
thanks angie! the patchwork is my favorite part too! and it was so nice to work without a specific plan in mind. i just cut a bunch of pieces and let it fly!
The chairs are amazing! Now what are you going to do to the table?
hi debra! you’ll just have to wait to see what i have up my sleeve for the table ; ) but i’m pretty jazzed about it : )
lovely stephanie! i love projects like this one myself.
i meant to say i love to do these kinds of projects too. the heat is sucking out all of my braincells today. yikes.
no worries wendy. i knew just what you meant ; ) glad you enjoyed it!
What a great idea! No kids in my house yet, but I will have to remember this when the time comes!
thanks stephanie! a little forward thinking never hurts! : )
This is so pretty Stephanie! I love the colors you used. I am inspired to go out and look for a desk to refurb!
Thanks.
thanks gloria and tracey!!
Looks fantastic!
I like the way you think lady! nice!
thanks liz! i think it’s ok to “give up” a little as long as you do it in a cute way. haha!