Chippendale Chair Redo Reveal

I'm excited to finally reveal the DIY Chippendale chair redo! If you've been following the story you know how long this project has been going on, so you can imagine how excited I am to have the finished product. I first picked these chairs up in November over Thanksgiving when I was visiting from New York. They were probably on my parent's neighbor's curb for less than 5 minutes on their way to the trash yard before I snatched them up and tucked them away in the garage. This gives you some background for the kind of condition the chairs were in. The black paint was chipping revealing multiple other layers of failed paint coats, there were cobwebs and bird droppings all over the chairs, and most obviously to note - they were missing seats. 

First things first, I pressure washed the chairs to remove a lot of the cobwebs, bird droppings and pollen and used a wire brush to pull off the paint. In some places, this revealed the original wicker. 

Once the chairs had dried, I used a white primer to help seal and cover the previous paint coats. From there I used a primer + paint spray paint in red, and applied about two coats letting them dry in-between each.

This is where the long stall came in this project. The next step was to build the seat and a wood cutter was going to be needed. This is where my strategic placement of these chairs in my parent's garage came in handy - leading to my dad to do the wood work. We measured the seats, cut the wood to the measurements, sanded the corners and screwed the seats into the frames.

Another coat of paint (this would be the third one), and we had a pretty drastic before and after shot.

From the start, I had loved the bright apple red paint color and had been planning to pair it with a black Asian inspired print. This changed when I saw this fun pink and red bohemian pillow from Lulu & Georgia. I knew I had to have it. They only had one in stock, so the chairs turned towards statement chairs in different rooms instead of a pair. I put the bohemian print pillow with a standard white cushion that I got on clearance at World Cost Market for $14. The total cost of the chair redo was around $30! With Chippendale chairs retailing for as much as $700, I'd call this diy a success, and one that's easy to replicate. In this case, the structure of the chair is not extremely ornate, so the pop of red color helps make the chair look more chic and glamorous. This style of chair could easily be found at estate sales, garage sales and antique stores and redone to look brand new.

Watch The Process:

Or follow the process here:

Finding the chairs

Fabric + Paint Inspiration

Making the seats

What do you think of the finished look?