Chairs are not just for sitting on

Tuesday I decided I was going to recover my kitchen chairs. I had attempted to do this a few months ago, but when I got the chosen fabric on the chairs, I discovered that I didn’t like the look. It was just too much yellow, and the light wood of the chairs kind of blended in with the floor. For a minute or two, I contemplated the fact that the chairs would look awesome with that fabric if only they were painted black. Then I came to my senses and decided it would just be easier to pick out a different fabric. So, on Monday, I bought this toille at Walmart and Tuesday felt like tackling a project.

The only problem was with my less than efficient staple gun. It’s just too whimpy to staple all the way into the wood, and I was almost out of staples. So, I put out a call to my crafty neighbors to see who had a staple gun I could use. Surprisingly, two of the five that I asked said their kids either currently had their guns, or had left it outside and ruined it. Kids! One neighbor brought one over, but it was out of staples. I sent my two errand runner kids to ACE hardware to find staples for both my gun and my neighbor’s gun. When they returned, they had only found staples for my gun. Couldn’t find any to fit the other gun. Oh, well. Must muddle through.

It was quite a process to take the seats off, clean out all the crud that has collected between the chair and the seat (makes me just want to bag the whole project and go buy new chairs. Ick), take off the plastic that was protecting the chair, put on the new fabric and the new plastic, then screw the chair back together. It didn’t help that only half of the staples even made any dent in the wood, and then I would have to hammer them in. Half of THOSE staples just collapsed flat. There was much grumbling and complaining going on, I tell you.

I had to stop with 4 out of 5 chairs done to go to Provo to pick up our students, but after dinner, I grabbed every inch of willpower I could find to finish the last one. And I’m so pleased with how they turned out.

Here is the old covering.

And here is the new covering.

Even though they are not perfect and I can see where I did a less than stellar job, I like how they turned out. We thought about it and the plastic covering we put on when we originally bought the set has lasted over 10 years. I guess if I only have to do this every 10 years, that would be good. Maybe by then I will buy a new staple gun.