Up-cycling Project

Upon arriving in the US our wonderful family friends offered us to look through some old furniture and take whatever we wanted!  While it was tempting to take everything, we stayed focussed and took a set of 4 dining chairs, which were free but needed reupholstering.  With only a day left before leaving my parents house and heading to Central Illinois to our new apartment I recruited my dad to help with the project. I went to a fabric store (50% off coupon in hand of course!) and bought new foam and a pretty fabric I fell head over heals for!  The project was relatively easy and only resulted in one minor injury (a big splinter in my nail! ouch!).

The steps included:
1) Remove the cushions from the frame of the chair
2) Remove the staples, old foam and fabric
3) Place the wooden base on the foam and new fabric and cutting out the appropriate size
4) Work around the base stretching and stapling the foam and fabric to the wooden base
5) Re-attach the base to the frame

Voila!

A new set of dining chairs for our new place.  Not only was this a fun project, but I feel good about up-cycling existing furniture to meet our needs instead of buying new.  This was a cost effective and creative way to make our home more functional and our style without breaking the bank!  Please share your DIY projects with me and I will feature them in a future post!