Chair Up-Cycle

I'm writing this post because several people have asked me what I did to give some old chairs a new look, and it was so easy, I just had to share!

When we got married, Dalin's Grammy gave us some awesome, sturdy antique chairs to go along with our antique kitchen table--which was fantastic--especially because I love antiques. We used the chairs for a year as they were, but then I got a little bit tired of looking at the worn pink velvety fabric mixed with maroon-brown. Pretty, right?

So I decided I would give them a make-over with the help of my mom when she came and visited me last December before Christmas. The first thing we did was choose colors. My favorite colors are aqua blue, green, and mustard yellow, so that was easy. We went to Lowe's and with the help of someone in the paint section, chose a can of primer and had them mix three sample sizes of our chosen colors, which were only $3 each! They looked just like the ones in the picture below.

Once we had our paint samples, we drove the Home Fabrics store and chose three different fabrics that would go well with the colors I'd selected and also look good with each other. We bought a yard or so of each, and then headed home to get to work! (We had also picked up a small, inexpensive staple gun while at Lowe's). 

At home, we took the chairs apart one by one. We flipped the chairs over and removed the screws to release the seat part, then I started priming the base of the chair. I set my mom to work, re-upholstering the seat. We decided to leave the pink fabric on underneath ours for extra padding. 

Here is the before picture of two of the chairs. The seats didn't match which annoyed me a little (especially since they were two different shades of pink)--though of course the covers I chose don't technically match either ;)

I covered the kitchen table with brown paper and started painting the primer on (you can see the chair in the background that I set on the stovetop to dry is fully primed). I'm not gonna lie--just priming kind of took a while, but my mom and I were excited to see them done, so we spent all evening and late into the night priming and painting.  

Here I am, just about ready to start painting the first chair! (Also, I was one month pregnant here btw)

Here is the final product! The aqua chair:

The green chair:

The mustard chair:

We keep two sitting at the table (because that's all we have room for really in our tiny kitchen) and one nearby for when we have someone visiting. Also, notice how nice our newly stained kitchen table looks! My mom did that for me while she was here last December since I was pregnant and the fumes can be dangerous. I think she did a pretty marvelous job! 

What do you think of our project?
Could we have done anything differently?
Do you have any old chairs or furniture to up-cycle/paint/re-upholster?

Let me know if you decide to do it yourself!