Quick chair makeover

I love to refinish chairs - it's so quick and satisfying. Although I'm soon going to need to start ridding my house of chairs as we're starting to get a little overrun.

When I was at Habitat for Humanity picking up the chandelier that we used in the laundry room, I found this adorable little guy.

I bought it planning to use it in Cal's room as a desk chair, as the old kitchen chair he has in there now is a little large for the size of the opening in the desk. After I got it home, though, I decided that I wanted to keep it in the living room. It's sturdy, but very petite, so it's easy to tuck away in a corner until needed for company. Plus I love the faux bamboo, and it seemed a shame to hide it away in Cal's room.

While the style of the chair was great, it was screaming out for a makeover. Between the fake antique red/black finish and the ugly granny fabric on the seat, it was looking a little sad.

It didn't take long to pull out the upholstery tacks and remove the fabric from the seat. I gave it a quick sanding and then spray painted it black lacquer. I think it looks a lot better in black.

I used the old seat cover as a pattern for the new fabric. 

I decided to cover it in the same material that I used on the bench. I centered the pattern on the seat,  added a new layer of batting on top of the old cotton padding,

and reused the upholstery nails that I pulled when I removed the seat cover to attach the new one.

There were a couple of places that gaped a little bit on the corners, but the next step was to glue down some black gimp to hide the edges. I just used the glue gun for this.

I tried to find some fancy upholstery tacks in black, but wasn't able to. I think that the glue should hold it well enough, though. If this was a dining chair that I planned to use on a regular basis, then I would have searched harder for the tacks, but since it's an occasional chair that's mostly for looks, I think it'll be fine. And if the trim starts to detach, I'll go hunting for black tacks then.

It nestles perfectly in the space between the fireplace mantle and the sideboard and it ties in with the black frame on the box of curiosities.

 Next step for the living room - new curtains. I picked up fabric for them this week, so now I need to bamboozle my sister into helping!