Upcycling dining room chairs - with spray paint!

Wow. It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted on here. I’m sorry I’ve been so AWOL! I’ve had a few things happening over here, my son and I have moved house, my son has started at a new pre-school, and I’ve been busy redecorating our new house and buying ‘new’ furniture! When I say new, I mean new to me, but not new to the world. 

In fact a lot of the furniture in my house is second hand. Whether I bought it from an op-shop, antique/vintage shop (my favourite one, which is waaay to close to my house) or given to me by my parents. I love collecting old, vintage furniture with ideas of upcycling them and bringing them back to life. I have a number of pieces sitting in my garage at the moment, waiting for me to start on them; my problem has been that even though I have ideas, I have been scared of ruining the pieces I have (they include a 1930's dresser and a late 1950's buffet - which I am actually using in my dining room, however it does need a little work).

But this blog post is about my dining chairs. I have had my dining table for a bit over six months, but didn't have any chairs for it (besides two very cheap chairs I bought for about $10 each, so at least we could sit at the table and eat meals together, while I waited for the right chairs to come along). I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the chairs once I found them - I wanted to paint them each a different, bright colour! And then, about a week ago I came across these chairs sitting out the front of a house with a big sign that said ‘FREE STUFF’. I pulled over and knocked on the door and offered the elderly woman some money for the chairs (even though the sign said they were free, I always like to at least offer some money for any items I see, as I’ve never been overly comfortable with just taking things off people’s front lawns...)

Original condition of chair

I had seen blog posts and photo’s about this being done and loved the idea! So, when I came across these chairs I knew they were perfect. I got them home (with thanks to my bestie, Michelle, who shoved three in her car for me. She’s a gem that girl!), and set about working out colours and headed down the shops the very next day.  I already knew that I would be using spray paint, as I’m not very good with tin paint you need a brush for (my dad once banned me from helping him paint his lounge room....his words went something like “You suck at this! Put the brush down!” Haha).

I did one chair at a time, starting with sanding the chair back. 

Original condition of chair

I then sprayed a grey primer on the chair. Except for the green chair, with that one I used a matte white spray paint as the base.

Primed and ready for colour!

Once the primer was dry (I gave them at least an hour in the sun to make sure they were properly dry) I started with the colour I had chosen for that chair. As you can see, the colours I chose are: red, blue, apple green and purple. Each chair took about one and a half cans of spray paint, going over some parts twice – this method covered each chair really well without really needing a full second coat. I then left them to dry (again, about an hour) and then used the rest of the second can to touch up places I had missed the first time (mainly when I turned the chairs upside down, I had missed the bottom of the rods going between the legs of the chairs) and do second coats over parts that I thought would need more durability (like the seat).

All painted and drying

I think the spray paint will hold up well, as while bringing the red chair inside I hit the leg pretty hard on the sliding door (whooopppsss!) and there was no damage at all, so fingers crossed the paint does hold up well – as I’m sure they’ll cop a beating from my 4 year old!

I think the chairs turned out fantastic!!!!! I love them! My son has already claimed the blue one, as he loves blue (I might even have to paint his name on it). 

My son on 'his' blue chair

Ideally I’d like six chairs, so I’m keeping an eye out for two more chairs. I’ll update this post when I finally find them and paint them.

Here they are around my dining room table. I think they look even more fabulous now they’re inside and around the table! My dining table is another recycled piece and is another project that I will be starting hopefully this weekend. I’ve decided to paint the table with Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint in ‘Old White’. I’ve heard so much about her paint, and am excited to have found a stockist not far from where I live. I will do another post once it’s done!

The colours and brands of spray paint used were: 

Red - Jet spray paint in 'Gloss Red' (purchased from a local $2 type shop)

Blue - Jet spray paint in 'Ocean Blue' (purchased from a local $2 type shop)

Green - Squirts (by White Knight) spray paint in 'Gloss Bright Green' (purchased from Bunnings)

Purple - Ironlak spray paint in 'Venom' (purchased from Eckersley's Art and Craft store)

They were surprising easy to do, albeit time consuming. But very much worth the effort! 

Let me know your thoughts below on my ‘new’ chairs! Have you done something similar to your chairs? Post a photo, I’d love to see them! Or have you been wanting to do this, but have been too scared? If so, just jump in with both feet – you’ll be glad you did!

Much love,

Jac xx