Scavenger Chic

Thrifted Dining Chair Makeover DIY

• By Joan
• September 14, 2022
• 5 Comments

Thrifted Dining Chair Makeover DIY

My latest edition of HGTV magazine featured this beautiful dining set. The magazine was not actually advertising the dining set, just the mismatched pendants from IKEA above the table.  They also didn’t give any information on the table or the chairs. 

But I love them! That is totally my style, rustic farmhouse, and I need a table that can seat 8, not my current table that can seat 6 but only has 4 chairs.

I’m beginning to see a new project taking shape and I’ve found my inspiration.  Only one little catch, I didn’t want to spend a lot.  Technically, I didn’t want to spend anything, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen.  🙂

With my inspiration in hand, I was on a hunt for the chairs.

I found a nice replica of the chair at Zin Home.  Oh my gosh, one chair is $399 and that’s the sale price, down from $499.  For 8 chairs that would be $3192.

They’re cute, but they’re not that cute!

I could do better.  This Westan dining chair from Pottery Barn is only $299.  Looks like the same chair to me but for 8 chairs the price goes all the way down to $2392 before shipping and tax.

If I didn’t want to spend a lot, I definitely had to rethink my chair choice.  I was headed to the thrift store.

The hardest part of finding thrift store chairs is to find a sturdy matching set.  I wanted 8 chairs but what I found were these two sets of 4 chairs and 2 chairs which were pretty  close to matching.  It wasn’t obvious at first glance, but the bottom rungs on the wooden seat chairs are different than the the solid green chairs. Didn’t matter to me, for a grand total of $52, I was looking at less than $10 each.  So much better than $300!

This Windsor style chair has been around forever and I still had high hopes of finding 2 more chairs to finish off my set or 2 end chairs that would complement these. Six chairs was an awesome  start.

You can still find  similar Windsor chair styles at Amazon and at Wayfair.

For my dining chair makeover, I’m planning to paint with chalk paint so I didn’t need to do an overall sanding  but the chairs  still needed some sanding to get rid of paint flakes and drips and any other  odd thing that stood out.

I always start painting my chairs upside down to reach  under the rungs and the hardest to reach places.  I also take the chairs outside in bright daylight when I think I’m finished painting.  There is always a spot or two I missed.

The person that previously painted these chairs did not turn these chairs upside down.  All that white is from spots they missed.

Selective sanding on the left and waiting for the paint to dry on the right.

• If you prefer to paint with spray paint, you may find a few hints or tips from these curbside chair makeovers

Chalk paint (not chalkboard paint) leaves a rough chalky finish and needs to be sealed with a wax.  This is antique wax from Waverly, on the left.  Just paint the wax on, rub off the excess and buff with fine steel wool.

Look what I found three  weeks later,  two more matching chairs.  At only $10.50 for the pair, my set is complete but I did have to start my dining chair makeover all over again. 

And this is my new (old) set of matching Windsor chairs around my new  DIY dining table.  If you’re interested, I’ll be revealing all the steps for how I created this farmhouse copycat dining table next week.  How close did I come to my inspiration picture?

Until next week, stay inspired.

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