Retro Dining Chairs Make-over

Today I finally have my stair carpet and hall flooring down so it feels more like a home again and not a project.  I still need to source a couple of pictures for my walls as my old ones don't go anymore but I have the idea to possibly reuse the frames and just get art posters.  That would entail more painting of the frames as they are gold but it would save them and I hate waste.

My table and chairs are getting used and look brand new, I am so glad I saved mums chairs from being thrown out because although they were worn and faded they are a strong frame.  In the end I went for a dark grey on these, the paint was from wilko and it is cupboard and furniture paint.  You have to use primer first but at £18 pound a tin I didn't think that was bad to transform some furniture.

I gave them all a good clean, sanded them and primed them and waited twenty four hours, then I gave them all two coats of the paint.  You have to wait six hours between coats.   When choosing the fabric for the seats I went for an Orla Kiely print in mustard as I though it would look good with the grey.

I am happy with the new look and the good thing is if the seats begin to look tired then the fabric can be updated again in future as it wasn't hard to do.  I also added an extra layer of wadding to make them extra comfy.

before

after

Here are the chairs with the primer on, they actually looked like a distressed effect so if you like that sort of thing I suppose you could have varnished or waxed over them at that point.  

The table top had three coats of clear varnish after the original had been sanded off, it is matt not shiny and I also bought the varnish from Wilko. ( I ought to mention at this point that I am not affiliated with that shop, I just thought it was good value for the paints.)

Here are the pictures of the finished stairs and hall, I didn't take a before shot as I just  got straight on with it and then thought oops.  So  it was originally beige walls, with a dark red carpet and light wood laminate floor in the hall.  The walls are now an off white called cotton, white walls and ceilings and grey floors.  I think it looks more modern but we have repainted the banister mahogany (which is the same) as I have an upcycled wood cupboard and I wanted some contrast.   So I hope we manage to keep it all looking tidy for a while, it is a hallway after all.  The little cupboard is for shoes but my sons seem to think it is there so you can kick your shoes off underneath it and leave them there!  I am going to have to wrap it up for today as for some reason my text keeps vanishing every time I start a new line and I can't seem to type anything below these images Argh!! Bye for now.