Take a Seat

  Kyle's brother stumbled upon some old chairs from a Ruby Tues. location that were up for grabs. Though they were in deep need of some TLC, he asked if we wanted them. We got to talking about how we were going to fix the chairs up and Kyle suggested using old t-shirts instead of buying fabric to reupholster the chairs. Brilliant! So, we headed to Savers, dug through a few racks and bought 4 t-shirts for $4 and change. Only 3 chairs are pictured here, though. Sprocket The Dog decided he hated one of the t-shirts as much as I secretly did and decided to shred it to bits. Thanks, I think?

  Anyway, this was super easy to do and heres how you can have awesome chairs, too!

• paint (I used the leftovers from the Chevron DIY I did a couple weeks ago)
• a drill
• sand paper
• old t-shirts
• a staple hammer (so.much.fun)
• pins

1. Flip the chairs over and use the drill to remove the screws and detach the seats. Save the screws! Sure, you could always get new ones but if its not necessary to replace them, just save the ones the chair came with because you already know they are the right size. 
2. Sand each chair, and focus on all the rough parts and edges. Seriously. Giving a good sand job (hehehe) is important because if you don't you're going to see all those rough spots you missed when you paint over them and make more work for yourself in the end. 
3. Apply a few coats of pretty paint! I think the best way to do this is to paint each chair once and by the time you're done with the first coat on the last chair, you'll be ready to add a second coat to the chair you started with. Get it? Of course you do! You're smart! And beautiful! You should probably do a minimum of 3 coats.

 (While your chairs are drying to beauteous perfection, reupholster your seats)

1. Cut the t-shirt right up the center of the back and lay it open with the graphic or front of the shirt facing down. 
2. Place the seat in the center of the shirt (the side you sit on facing down) and use the neck as a guideline to help you make sure the graphic is centered.
3. Fold the t-shirt over the cushion nice and tight and use pins to keep it in place.
4. Once everything is aligned, take your staple hammer and slam it down a few times to secure the shirt on the cushion, removing the pins as you go along. 
5. If you turn the cushion over and feel that the design is just a wee bit off, you can probably get away with stretching the shirt and re-stapling it instead of feeling like you have to pull all the staples out and start again. T-shirts stretch, so use that to your advantage.
6. Once you're done, place your seats upside down on a table and sit the chairs upside down on top of them. 
7. Use the drill to reinsert the screws and voila! You're done!