Whitney’s Little Black Chair

You just can’t go wrong with black.  It is the perfect color for almost anything… including chairs.  I have found that one of my favorite pieces of furniture is a dining chair.  They make perfect accent chairs… they have great lines, they are a great size and they are really easy and cheap to find.  Can’t beat that! My latest revamp… an old dining chair given to me by my father-in-law.  I fell in love immediately… the lines, caning and legs… woohoo!!! It obviously just needed a bit of a makeover.  This is what I did…
I started by removing the cushion and taking the chair to the garage to paint.  I used Rustoleum American Accents spray paint in Canyon Black.  I only used about a half of a can on this chair and if you are considering painting your chairs I would ONLY use this brand… It’s the best!
While that was drying I started working on my cushion… I wanted something a bit less tailored and also decided to add a little burlap… why not??
This is my stencil brush and my Americana Ebony acrylic paint I used to do the stenciling.  I knew this would be an accent chair that won’t get much use so I used the acrylic.  If you will be using your chairs more often you will need to find a washable fabric paint to do your stenciling.
I cut out my stencils with my Cricut and positioned them on a 10″ square piece of burlap to get an idea of how it would look…
I used my stenciling brush to put the paint on… remember… up and down, not like a normal paint brush!
While this was drying I got to work on the rest of the cushion…
I will give a few details on the sewing but I know many of you don’t even own a machine so I will skip the tutorial:)  If you do want some extra tips, just leave me a comment.  I started by making my cording.  I decided the rest of my cushion would be made of a drop cloth.  I purchased a $5 drop cloth from Lowe’s for this project.  It is a perfect weight for this project and many others.  I cut a strip of the fabric and sewed it around some jute twine to make my cording.
After making my cording, I went back to my now dried burlap.  I cut a piece of drop cloth the shape of the cushion and layed it next to my burlap.  I used just a bit of spray adhesive to stick the burlap to the drop cloth.
This is what it looked like….
I used my machine to put a straight stitch around the burlap about 1/2 inch short of the edge.  I wanted it to look like a patch so I frayed up the edge of the burlap just a bit.
Here I have put the cushion cover together… skipping all of my sewing steps that don’t interest many of you:)
I distressed the edges of my chair just a bit and then just pulled the cover over the cushion.  Isn’t she cute??  I think this will be my chair for my work space up in my loft but for now I just took some random shots for you.  What do you think??  For those of you hesitating to paint your chairs… STOP:)  Just go for it!  You will look at the outcome and smile every time!!
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