Bentwood Chair Love and My Own DIY

I have loved the bentwood style kitchen chair for a long time. So classic. Such feminine lines. But so utilitarian at the same time. There's no frippery here! This is a seat even a manly man could love.

Sara Ruffin Costello's home via thekitchn.com. And to date one of my favorite spaces ever. Frequently visited page in my Domino book.

I love how Bentwood Chairs are so transitional in style! Check out this apartment with all the light on Design Sponge.

Found on Emily Henderson's blog

This image is from Susan and William Brinson's Sneak Peek on Design Sponge. I'm obsessed with this whole beautiful home. Check out that gorgeous bedroom with the light and the yellow duvet. Dreamy.

This image is from Design Sponge as well but I can't be sure which house tour. Love this light and bright kitchen!

I had set my mind to finding a complete dining set and had searched for months....when I finally (Eureka!) found someone selling his reproductions on my local Craigslist. They had been used in his beach themed restaurant and bar. They were a great deal and he had about a hundred to sell! I bought 8 (for the great, long dining table I don't yet have. You've done this before, right? Tell me I'm not crazy.) I have only redone 4 of the 8 because I was under the gun for our housewarming party. I like to think I will get to the other 4. :)

The bad news.... The chairs were ugly. Really ugly. And in bad shape.

Never one to be intimidated by some hard work, I set to stripping the paint. My initial thought was to go natural with the wood and finish with a stain and some poly. Well, that was until I started stripping the paint and it WASN'T going smoothly. This was my first attempt, and if you ever stripped paint, you know it's a nasty process.

One thing I learned, apply a LOT of stripper (I used Strypeeze) and let it soak for several minutes. The bubbles will tell you when it's ready. However, you might just disregard my advice on this topic, because ultimately, I was not successful with the paint-stripping. I reassessed my strategy.New plan: sand and PAINT!

I revisited my inspiration. I'm liking the semi-gloss black....! Excellent. Now we're getting somewhere. I used Black (Forever) a Behr Ultra paint from Home Depot in Satin Enamel finish. It's a black paint with a primer in it (SO glad I went with paint and primer in one. Covers so much better) and ended up doing two coats, plus a bit of touching up at the end. I used a brush and let them dry completely between coats.

Of course, those nasty white-painted vinyl seat cushions HAD to go. So, I set to removing the staples. (the THOUSANDS of staples!) I had to take a picture to show this. Crazytown. In my experience, by using a cheap kitchen steak knife, you can pry under the staple before going back in with needle nose pliers. Tedious, but not difficult.

Next, the seats. I had to find a fabric to recover the seats with that would be durable and easy to clean. I decided I wanted a pop of color and pattern. I checked with the Boyf about whether he felt he needed to approve the print or not. He said he trusted me (aww!). So the fabric I found was a vinyl tablecloth (!!!) for $4.99 at Homegoods. (!!!) I know. Believe it! The company who creates it is called Style Happy and I can't for the life of me find them online. (Is it even possible that they don't have a website in this day and age!?) I ended up having Boyf okay it anyway before all the hard work since the pattern does incorporate some feminine colors. I figured the geometric print balances out the femininity of the colors. He liked the pattern too. (Hooray!)

So step one for the seats, remove staples. Step two, lay the plywood seat plus batting down on your new fabric. (I reused the foam because it was in good shape.) Step three, center your round seat over the center of your repeating pattern. This isn't necessary but will give it a more polished end result. Step four, pull up the edges to estimate how much extra you'll need around the edges. (I am not an exact-math-kinda-person. I am an estimator. My mother, similarly, has "the ol' level eye" and never uses measurements or a level. I get better results when I use my eye than when I bother with a cumbersome ruler/measuring tape/etc.) Step five, pull the fabric taut and staple as close to the edge as you can. My staples were not going in flush, so I had a hammer nearby, and after about every five staples, I went back and hammered the staples flush. Step six, shown below, trim off the excess with scissors.

The covering of the seats took a long time, but again wasn't difficult. I fastened the seats to the chairs using the pilot holes and brackets on the frames, and there you have it!

I'm pleased with the result and think they look cheerful and clean. What do you think?