You may remember when I brought home my 12 foot long dining table, teetering precariously from the bed of our 5.5 foot truck bed. It used to be a conference table and is complete with name carvings and used gum underneath the top. If you know me, you know my home is always evolving. My five turquoise Eames style dining chairs were joined by a ten foot church pew a couple years ago that I recovered in white vinyl. I shall say that it was a little more then annoying to be the person in the middle of a bench that needs to excuse themselves. I moved the bench into my living room and started keeping my eye out for more chairs.
If you follow me on Instagram, then you may have seen the chair photos I posted after a successful thrifting expedition:
Three cafe chairs and four rattan chairs. The rattan chairs came in a set with a matching table. I didn’t really need another table but of course I can’t say no to free. It has since worked it’s way into our home and I’ll share it with you soon. To be honest I wasn’t sure I would be using these chairs in my dining room or my round room or if they would just collect dust in my garage. When I go treasure hunting, I consider buying an item if it’s a good price, I like it, and it’s in good shape. I worry later about where it belongs.
All the chairs were extremely dirty with grungy grime like you wouldn’t believe. I gloved up and scrubbed them with a mild soap and a kitchen Dobie. I probably could have kept scrubbing for days and continued to removed cheesy fumundama but you got to know when to say when.
I used zinsser primer tinted with a dark grey for the first coat on all seven chairs. It was cold and wintery outside so I did all the painting over cardboard in my kitchen while catching up on “Fixer Upper.”
I took my Eames style chair into Home Depot. It was too big to scan in their machine but I found the closest color card to match.
Two full coats of turquoise paint and a third coat spotted on as needed on all seven chairs.
Recovering the round chair pads were fairly simple. I placed the pad on top of the fabric and pulled it, attaching it to the wooden base using a staple gun at the four quarters like fifteen minute intervals on a clock. Pulling the fabric taught in the middle of each quarter I continued to staple the fabric until it was attached all the way around. Many of the staples needed to be hammered in further or hammered bent down around the fabric. As long as the fabric feels secure it’s okay if you have to bend the staple over with the hammer. Trip the excess fabric and reattach to the chair.
The blue and green suzani fabric is a remnant from the coffee table I turned into an ottoman.
The small print blue and green floral fabric I found a year ago at the thrift store. I recommend checking the fabric section when thrifting just in case you find something you like and can
tuck away hoard until needed.
Here’s the dining room before:
And after I painted all the dining room chairs to match my Eames Chairs: