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Gorgeous dining chair transformation

I am excited to be kicking off a new series today!

repurpose recycle reuse

In case you haven’t noticed, I absolutely love turning something outdated, unnecessary, or just plain ugly into something beautiful and useful. Repurposed projects are my absolute favorite! So I gathered five of my favorite like-minded bloggers together to each bring you a brand new repurposed, recycled, or reused project every month on the first Wednesday of the month. We’ve also created a new board on Pinterest just for sharing our favorite repurposed, recycled, reused projects. So if you love repurposed projects as much as me, you are definitely going to want to follow along.

And I am super excited about the project I have to share with you today. Now I do realize it doesn’t look so repurposed at first glance.  Ok, probably not at second glance either.

shower curtain turned new upholstery

“Wow, you repurposed chairs as…chairs.” Hmmm.

But I promise, there was some repurposing involved with that fabulous fabric on the seat cushions. I picked up these chairs at a yard sale last year for a steal. $30 for a set of four solid wood chairs! They weren’t without their issues though. This was definitely a case of wood looking much nicer in photos than in real life. There were tons of scratches and random paint splatters on them as well as some major drips from whoever originally stained and finished them. Not to mention the graying seats that provided all of about a millimeter of cushion.

dining room chairs

I wasn’t exactly sure what color I wanted to go with these chairs until I came across this gorgeous shower curtain at TJMaxx. I knew this shower curtain would be perfect repurposed as seat cushions for my chairs. Plus, where else are you going to find several yards of designer upholstery-weight fabric for only $15?

shower curtain upholstery

After using a bit of wood glue to tighten up all the loose, wobbly bits, I removed the seats from the chairs and then painted them with two coats of Valspar ‘nightscape’ paint. I’m a sucker for texture, so I followed up with some 180 grit sandpaper around the edges.

Details of painted, reupholstered chair

Then it was time for that fabulous shower curtain. I wanted to make sure the turquoise color in the fabric was featured on each seat cover, so I lined everything up carefully before cutting anything. To make sure I cut plenty of fabric to wrap all the way around the seats, I used the old dirty fabric that was originally on the seats as a template.

And bonus – the shower curtain was so big, I have enough fabric for another sweet upholstery project I have planned!

dining chair transformed

Those seats definitely needed a bit of a boost in the padding department, so I turned to my upholstery go to: memory foam egg crate mattress pads. These are so cushy and relatively inexpensive. For this project, I just used some pieces left over from my upholstered headboard. I traced the chair bottoms on to the mattress pads and then cut them out with regular scissors.

Then it was time to put everything back together. To recover a chair seat, lay out your fabric followed by your padding and the seat bottom. Then just pull the fabric edges over everything and staple them to the bottom of the seat with a staple gun. Just make sure to pull everything nice and tight as you are stapling.

Transformed dining room table and chairs

 

Dining chair reupholstered with a shower curtain

And now they are both gorgeous and sooo comfortable. The seats may seem a little busy next to the paisley floor but they actually complement each other quite well. And hey, I am working on being bold and taking some chances after all!

And now the fun part. Check out these other gorgeous Repurposed, Recycled, Reused projects.

lampshade covers

Turn Old Shirts Into Lampshade Covers – Thrifty and Chic

tracing mat

Crazy Easy Reuseable Tracing Mats – Life as a Thrifter

diy light

Make a lamp out of a candlestick – Bigger Than The Three of Us

paper roses

Paper Flowers – It All Started With Paint

Easy DIY Valentines Day Poppers

Easy DIY Valentine Poppers – All Things G&D

 

And don’t forget to follow our Repurpose, Recycle, Reuse board on Pinterest!

new signature

Comments

    • Carrie says

      Thanks Ashley, I am always trying to think of cheaper ways to get what I want. Designer home decor fabric is expensive – but not shower curtains!

      Reply

  2. angela says

    Love the idea of using a shower curtain…super clever! And, I love how the fabric compliments the floor. :)

    Have a great day!

    Angela @ Number Fifty-Three

    Reply

    • Carrie says

      Thanks Krista! I’m sure the shower curtain will definitely be fairly easy to wipe down and clean – at least I hope so with a one year old running around!

      Reply

  10. Leslie says

    I love them! What a neat idea. Your dinning room set is soo cute. I love the color you picked too. I’m stopping by from SITS wish you a happy Saturday!

    Reply

    • Carrie says

      Thanks Leslie – I am so happy with how the dining room table and chairs came together. Thanks for stopping by!

      Reply

  11. Janice says

    Those chairs are fabulous! If you can do that with garage sale chairs and a TJ Maxx shower curtain I can’t even imagine how amazing the rest of your house must look!

    Reply

    • Carrie says

      Thanks Janice! The rest of the house is still a work in progress – but there is definitely some good stuff going on in the midst of all the ‘befores’.

      Reply

  12. Mamapotamus says

    That is amazing, and I never would have thought of it, but I come across shower curtains all the time and wish I could use the print for something else because I don’t have any positions open for new shower curtain. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply

    • Carrie says

      Me too! That is where I got the idea – there seems to be a plethora of great shower curtains out there just dying to be used in one way or another.

      Reply

  13. Emily says

    Hi! I am commenting from #SITSSharefest. I had to click your link when I saw it was a repurposed showed curtain. Shower curtains have some of the most adorable fabric! I love how you upholstered a chair with it. So cute and such a good idea! Have a great weekend!

    Reply

    • Carrie says

      Thanks Emily! You are so right – I see really awesome shower curtains all the time and just knew there had to be more than one way to use them.

      Reply

  14. Jenn says

    LOVE IT! What a great idea to use the shower curtain, I am going to have to remember that. I am a sucker for a good DIY or Upcycle project. Your photos are lovely too. Visiting from SITS.

    Reply

  15. Denose Gabbard says

    Beautiful job! The colors are perfect and it looks great with the table; great thinking outside the box for the shower curtain.

    Reply

  16. Jessica says

    This is awesome! I’ve actually thought of doing the same thing before. Glad to know it’s been tested and works fabulously!! I love the colors.
    #sitssharefest

    Reply

  17. Debra says

    They are awesome!!!! I just picked up two brand new shower curtains from goodwill and I was planning to use them for curtains because I loved the pattern, but know you have given me thought to use for some chairs that I have also. I paid 4.00 for the shower curtains and if you had to buy two panels it cost a fortune. Thank you for sharing. Your chairs are really nice.
    Best wishes
    Debbie

    Reply

    • Carrie says

      Thanks Erica! When I was painting them, my husband commented that I paint everything some version of that same color. I can’t help it – it is a color that just makes me happy. :)

      Reply

  25. Jamie says

    I love this transformation! You’re being featured on Give Me The Goods tomorrow and will be on my FB page ;)
    Hugs,
    Jamie @ somuchbetterwithage.com

    Reply

  28. Alicia says

    I just wanted to thank you for posting this, I fell in love with the fabric shower curtain you used, and decided to try T. J. Maxx to see if they still had it. They did! Thank you for opening my eyes to fabric store alternatives! It was a huge budget saver! I painted my table top dark grey to match, and I love love love it! Thanks again!!

    Reply

    • Carrie says

      Alicia, I am so glad you were able to find it. I saw the same shower curtain there again a few months ago and almost bought it again but didn’t in the end because I didn’t really need more right now. I bet it is gorgeous with a dark grey tabletop!

      Reply

  30. Nadine says

    How did the shower curtain fabric hold up on the chairs? (I’m considering something similar for a travel trailer to recover seat cushions.)

    Reply

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