Day 8: Recovering the Dining Room Chairs (and a Tonic Living Fabric Reader Discount!!!)

Originally this was going to be the last post in the 10 Tasks in 10 Days Challenge, but I've just been too excited to show it. Ever since I picked up these chairs (for free!) I've wanted to recover the different golf plaid patterns with something fresh and bright.

I found this amazing canvas fabric from Tonic Living, a Toronto based company (they also made my striped futon cover)

Using the same process as I did last year with my old chairs, I removed the seat from the chair frame and stapled the new upholstery right over the old stuff and then add some black felt on the bottom to cover the ends. Then it was just a matter of screwing back on the seat to the frame. I did it all while watching a movie (Sunshine Cleaning!) so it doesn't take very long, but my hands were aching from the staple gun afterwards.

Voila! Look at the difference between the two chairs. (I don't know why it is showing them as two different wood tones, but they're the same). What a difference that little bit of vibrant fabric made to the entire room. I bought the fabric for all four chairs for less than $15 and I still have some leftovers for a couple of other little projects.

The only thing I need to do is fix this one leg that looks like its ready to snap. Any suggestions? For now I have it sitting in the hallway where the most weight it will have to carry is my purse when I set it down, but I'd like to fix it to be functional again.

Here is the completed dining room set, including the (free!) table that I refinished with my Dad last October. Between the fabric for the chairs ($15) and the stain, polyurethane and brushes for the table ($18), I got this entire dining room set for $32!

I love the colour of the fabric against the wood and you wouldn't believe how much it brightens up the dining room. It was worth the little bit of time and money to took to recover these and the great thing is that next time I want to change them up it is as simple as buying some more upholstery.

Now I've got some great news for you all! The awesome folks at Tonic Living are offering Small Home Big Start readers a 10% discount with no minimum until February 25th, 2012. Just type in SMALLHOME (no spaces) at the checkout. I strongly urge you to head on over and take a look at their awesome fabrics. I just bought some more fabric myself for a couple of Spring pillows to brighten up the place.

- - - -

Linked up to:

Blue Cricket Design

Sew Much Ado
A Little Tipsy
JAQs Studio
Vintage Wannabe
The Southern Institute