Makeshift Martha

Craigslist Painted Chair Cushions, Before and After

In a quest to find dining room chairs to match our as-is IKEA grey-brown dining table, even IKEA was too expensive for me. Seventy dollars for each chair and it still looks small and plastic-y? No thanks.

I ended up finding 6 chairs on Craigslist that were listed for $20 each. When my husband and I arrived at the house (I will stop making house visits when Craig-listing, promise), the chairs were a little dusty and under a huge pile of garage stuff. My husband was able to negotiate down to $16 per chair.

The chairs were so large, we ended up having to make 2 trips to this house. This house was not close to ours, so that kinda sucked. Anyway, I got to admire them twice as long as they were carefully placed in the back of my tiny vehicle.

I picked up my Martha Stewart fabric medium at Michaels and received a 40% off coupon, so that when I made the inevitable return trip for more, I did have savings. Mind you, I didn't want to go back but I ended up needing two of these tiny little bottles.

Supplies:

(2) Martha Stewart Fabric Medium from Michaels - $6 each/$12 for two
(1) Quart of Paint from Home Depot
(1) Good quality, wide paint brush
(1) Water spray bottle

1.) First, I removed the cushions and painted the chair frames.

* TIP: Put a small number on the bottom of each chair frame and each cushion. This will make sure your cushions fit perfectly back on the chair.

Painted Chair Frame

Painted Chair Frame with old, unpainted cushion.

2.) Second, I decided on a paint color for the cushions.

These cushions were also kinda stained looking and well worn. Bleh. I kinda
liked the light color and for a second, even considered keeping the cushion as is.
Ew, that would have been a mistake!

I painted a sample of the taupe color and added pins to get an idea of what the chair would look like. After much deliberation, I chose a taupe brown paint from Home Depot.

3.) I Started Painting The Cushions!

This step was a lot of trial and error.

I used a water spray bottle to prep the cushions for the paint.
Then, I used a wide brush to lightly spread the paint across the cushion. I tapped off the extra paint to make sure the paint spread evenly.
There is piping on the chair cushions, so sometimes I had to go back and make sure the piping was also painted.
Allow first layer to dry
Repeat until even.

I did 5, maybe 6 layers of this until I gave up. I realized that the first layer was the most important. By this time though, it was too late. Let me tell you, I stressed so much about the final coats. I kept layering on the paint, hoping to get the coats even and then realized that the first paint strokes I placed on the cushion were the most important.

* TIP: The first coat is the most important! Make sure the cushion is evenly sprayed with water and not to have excess paint on your brush. Test out one side of the cushion to get in a rhythm of the painting because painting a cushion is about timing.