Sometimes, a little magic happens when you go to renovate. Take this table and chairs, for instance. A gift from friends several years ago when I got my first apartment, the table had been well-loved for years. It had been perfect for my apartment, but as my tastes and styles changed, I realized the table needed to change, too. I had purchased some spray paint for the project, and I had fabric I planned to use, but I wasn’t like… in love with it. It was more of a reflection of my tastes and a thought on what might look good. But then, fate intervened.

When visiting my grandmother a few months before, I had decided to buy a can of spray paint. She had a planter that was just dying for a coat of fresh paint. But the week came and went, and with many other projects on the schedule, it just never ended up getting done. The paint in this perfect pool blue color that I was head over heels for went into my spray paint stash and was out of mind until I went to get the fabric I had selected for my table and chairs.

I picked up the fabric I had purchased, and just below it, there was a simple folded piece of fabric I had bought to make some small curtains. It was stunning… and it was white with this perfect little blue on the pattern. I loved the fabric and knew I wanted to use it right away, and that’s when I realized the blue in the fabric that drew me in was the same blue in the paint I had bought.

I started the process by removing all of the hardware and taking the table top and seats off of the framework for the table. It was a quick process- a screwdriver and a couple of minutes was all it took. After that, I gave everything a thorough wipe-down.

 

The next step? Well, this is when my weekend project became a two week project… I did a first coat of spray paint on my chairs. Now, you want to make sure your spray paint works on what you’re going to spray. This Rust-oleum paint works great on metal, but trying to cover black with a bright blue proved a challenge when I turned the chairs upside down to get the feet– I scratched the paint. I planned to do a quick touchup, but then it started to rain.

And rain. And rain. I briefly considered building an ark, because it rained for nearly two weeks.

But finally, I was able to finish painting the chairs! Woo!

During the long period of rain, I worked on indoor tasks. Like re-upholstering the chairs. It’s relatively easy to re-upholster even round chairs, actually. The first step, of course, is removing all of the staples and previous fabric. I did that with the red fabric pictured. And the white fabric below the red fabric.

Then, I did the same with this lovely floral fabric underneath. (This is a pretty well-loved table and chairs set, and it’s been re-upholstered several times from it’s original look, clearly).

Finally, I got down to the original fabric and decided it would be easier to cover this than try to hold the padding on while re-upholstering, so I made sure the bold stripe wouldn’t show through my fabric, and got to work cutting out my seat covers.

To make an easy cut, fold the fabric, right sides together, making room for the selvage (or that little white strip that tells you the fabric designer or other details). Once you’ve done that, place the seat on the fabric and trace a circle around it, being sure to leave several inches on each side. My dad suggests 4-5 inches of space, but you may be able to get away with a little less.

I didn’t have quite enough fabric to cut that much slack, but I did the best I could– just get as much as you possibly can.

I recruited my dad’s help in the upholstery process because he has a little more experience with it than I do. What you need to do is fold it carefully to help it go around a curve– the folds can be made on the underside for a smooth surface on top and on the sides of the seat. Making these small folds will help secure the fabric tightly around the seat.

Hold that tight fold firmly as you put a staple right onto that fold, making sure to secure it firmly. Now, this is a good time to mention that you’ll probably want to spend the extra money to get a thicker upholstery fabric that will hold up better to being a seat. That said, I did not follow this advice because I tend to change my mind about my furnishings and this should hold up well enough until I decide to re-upholster it again with a new pattern or style; I went cheaper because I knew in the long run, I’d upholster this enough that quality fabric didn’t matter quite as much. You do you– if a fabric is speaking to you that isn’t upholstery quality, don’t totally rule it out if you think you’ll swap it out enough or use the chairs little enough that it won’t matter too much.

It was around the time the weather cleared up and I finished the chairs that I realized I didn’t love how the white tabletop looked with the fabric and the bright blue of the chairs. That was nothing a good spray paint couldn’t fix, so I pulled out the trusty Rust-oleum. I made sure to get one that worked on wood, plastic, and more because it seemed to have no problem covering the laminate-type top.

After some careful propping, I managed to get my tabletop painted on both sides.

After that, it took a quick reassembly of the chairs and table to the top. Now, if you remember where the screws went to begin with, you may be able to do this with hand tools, but if you’re like me and lost the holes in the upholstery process, you’ll want to use a power screwdriver to create new holes for the screws to go into.

I love how the table and chairs turned out. Even though it wasn’t quite a weekend project (thanks, constant rain!), it would be if I tried to repeat it on a sunny weekend. I love that this “new” table and chairs reflect my style way more. Don’t be afraid to take a piece that used to work for you and make it new again.

Because I was gifted the table for free secondhand, this project was also really affordable– about $15 for 3 cans of spray paint, plus about $10 on clearance fabric from Hobby Lobby. That makes this table re-do less than buying a new table that matched my style.

 

I love the huge difference a little paint and fabric made in these chairs, and now they’ll look perfect in my bright yellow kitchen!

 

Want to see more weekend renovations? Check out this chair re-do I tackled last year! Or, if you want to see more fun ways to use Spray Paint, you’ll love this DIY Gift Box! If you just love to DIY, don’t forget to check out this DIY String Art or some Sand Art using chalk!

I want to hear about your next weekend project– let me know all about it in the comments below! Or, show me what your most recent weekend DIY was!