These folding chairs may have been some of my first furniture in my college apartment. That was, shall we say, a few years ago. They are looking pretty rough! After checking them out to see if I could easily remove the padded section, the “makeover” wheels started turning.

This is how I upgraded my crummy, handy, trustworthy folding chairs with spray paint and recovered the chairs with about a 1/2 yard of fabric.

Supplies

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Screwdriver
• Sharp Scissors (fabric scissors, if you have them)
• Hot Glue
• About 1/2 yard of fabric
• Spray Paint
• Old Crummy Folding Chairs (or new ones, if you fancy)

I picked my fabric to match my wild paint color. It is Maui Blue.

My chair only has a padded seat. The back of the chair is solid metal.

Step 1

Take out the six screws that are holding the pad onto the metal chair.

Step 2

Remove the plastic feet. Turns out, I couldn’t get the little feet off, so I ended up masking them off with painter’s tape.

Step 3

Shake the spray paint and follow the directions to apply paint to the chair. If your paint requires spray primer first, prime it. If the chair needs to be sanded first, sand it.

Paint the chair from one direction. Remember- you won’t have to paint the seat of the chair. It will be covered with the fabric pad. (Hey, don’t spray too much! You don’t want to have paint drips like in the below picture. I ended up wiping those with a paper towel and fixing it on the second coat.)

Once the paint is dry, flip the chair upside down and paint it from another angle. This will help you cover all the areas.

Step 4

This is the step where we cover the pad while waiting for the paint to dry outside.

So you’ll notice when the pad is removed, the cheap vinyl is held on by staples. I’m thinking “Awesome, I have a staple gun.” Then I started thinking more….

My staples are quite long and don’t really look like these staples. If I staple this fabric to my chair pad, I bet I get poked in the legs or bum with those dang staples.

Hum.

Enter Hot Glue!

• Lay the fabric on the ground, wrong side up.
• Center the pad
• Wrap the center area of opposing sides first.
• Work your way along each side.
• Smooth the corners
• Make sure you can see the original screw holes; cutting away fabric where needed.

I figure the screws will also help hold the fabric securely to the chair as it will be pinched between the pad and metal seats.

Step 5

Bring the chair in to remove the painters tape OR put the plastic feet back on the chair legs.

Step 6

Screw the pad to the seat of the chairs using the original holes and screws.

Finito!

The crummy grey/tan college folding chair can have new life as a trendy little blue chair.

And he can hang out with his new coordinated chair-friend, too.

I hope you liked this no-sew, super-easy afternoon Folding Chair Makeover!

Fabrics in this tutorial are Timeless Treasures and Laura Gunn for Michael Miller.

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