Chairs Through 3 Generations

Being a young family we are always asked if we need this or that piece of furniture before it goes to Goodwill or someplace like that.  Don't get me wrong I LOVE it, but sometimes whatever it may be needs some updating.  In this particular case it is my grandma's table and chairs.  I recently acquired them from my Mother, who also after receiving them recovered them in short order, and now it is my turn to have a go.

This is what they looked like when I got them.

This green was on the chairs since I was a kid. Back in the day it worked, not now though, 15 yrs or so later. :)  My kids have also done a number on them in the short time I have had them, that particular fabric didn't do well with spilled milk from a cereal bowl or mac and cheese all over and under a booster seat.  Anyhow, you can see now exactly why it was time to recover them.

I started with unscrewing the seats from the chairs, and taking out the staples from the previous recover job. As I began to uncover them I got a surprise underneath.  

Well, not a total surprise.  I knew it would be some really old fabric.  This fabric was actually used by my grandmother to recover the chairs.  It was pretty neat to see the way she tucked the corners and I even learned something from how she did it, and decided to do it the same way.

So after taking a few minutes to remember my grandma and what a wonderful lady she was, I got to work.  I chose a blue microfiber suede and later I will scotch guard them.

At first things started out a bit rocky but after I switch out to a real staple gun (cough cough, thanks to my in laws, cough) the process really started to pick up.  

My hands definitely took a beating from this but I got it done pretty quickly and it was so worth it, but I was glad when it was over...

I love the way they turned out!  I wasn't done yet though, after the kids went to bed I laid everything out to scotch guard.  

It was easy, shake the can and spray even coats.  I waited about an hour and did a second coat and let it dry over night.  Then I spent a good amount of time today cleaning the chairs and reattaching the seats.

I couldn't be happier, well I would really like to paint the chairs white and the table bottom and legs white also and refinish and re-stain the top but hey there is only so much you can do before your little girls birthday party, or in one summer for that matter. ;)

It's like the chairs are saying, "Come sit down, I no longer have kids stains and late 80's fabric! I'm new again!  It's okay, sit!"