DIY Chair Makeover

This post is for my mom who said she is sick of looking at the Doritos Casserole on my very outdated Blog.



Mike and I have been yard-saling this summer in an attempt to find goodies to fill our new home with. Not only did we find a second hand chair, but we got it for free! We packed it up in the trunk of my car to take back to the house to figure out what to do with. Mind you we were driving my small 2-door Honda, so it was an interesting, slow drive home.

It was pretty beat up; the paint was peeling and the caning had seen better days. I stripped the chair completely down, not really knowing if I'd have the skills or creativity to redo the bottom and backing of the chair. It was free though, so what did I have to lose?

Good ol' internet. You can teach me to do anything. After watching this video on how to weave a seat with flat reed, I ordered some supplies and headed to the hardware store to get some sanding paper and pick out a color to paint the chair.

So we sanded that baby down (I helped too Ma, I swear), threw on about three coats of paints, and weaved her up. I'm making this sound like it was a fast processes, but it really took a few weeks to complete. The video by Peerless Ratan is excellent, he walks you through every step of the process. His website is also awesome; lots of information for weaving and caning newbies and all the supplies you'd need to complete any DIY chair project.

Not half bad for a side of the road-junk chair, huh? So go ahead and pin the detailed instructed video if you have a fixer-upper chair you're looking to do something with.