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Fabulous and Fresh Upcycled Chairs

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Fabulous Colourful Ikea Upcycled Chairs

Thrift store challenge upcycled chairs: For this month’s challenge a set of bargain Ikea chairs picked up at a local jumble sale have been given a fabulous, fresh colourful makeover.

 
 
Thrift Store Decor Upcycle Challenge

The Rules:

  • Upcycle an item(s) from a thrift store, resale store, or garage sale into a new piece of decor.
  • There’s no monthly theme.
  • There’s no budget to stick to.

Meet the Hosts

Amanda | The Kolb Corner    Maureen | Red Cottage Chronicles   Kim | Made in a Day 
Dru | Polka Dot Poplars    Erlene | My Pinterventures    Colleen | Life on Kaydeross Creek    Pili | Sweet Things    
Shirley | Intelligent Domestications    Debra | Shoppe No. 5    Marie | DIY Adulation    
Chelsea | The Johnsons Plus Dog    Jes | My DIY Envy    Lindsay | Crazy Organized
Molly | Just a Little Creativity    Ashley | 3 Little Greenwoods    Kimm | Reinvented    Michelle | Our Crafty Mom
Jeannee | Shepherds and Chardonnay   Sue | A Purdy Little House   Sara | Twelve on Main
Claire | Pillar Box Blue     Chelc | Inside the Fox Den    Kim | Farmhouse Made   Victoria | Dazzle While Frazzled    
Sherry | Savvy Apron    Jennifer and Vicki | 2 Bees in a Pod    Lora | Craftivity Designs      
Medina | Grillo Designs   Denise | My Thrifty House   Toni | Small Home Soul  Ann | Duct Tape & Denim  

Make sure you follow our board on Pinterest for more upcycled decor inspiration!

 
 
This post contains amazon affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to see my disclosure policy.
 
 
 
I have to confess that this is a bit of a cheat as it wasn’t my upcycle but my craft buddy Leonie’s.
 
In my defense, I was with Leonie when she bought the chairs. In fact, I even bought them for her (Leonie’s like the Queen in that she doesn’t carry cash!).
 
Also as I did see the transformation first hand I think that gets me off the hook a bit.
 
Leonie doesn’t have a blog and really doesn’t do social media so has nowhere to share her fabulous thrift store upcycle. Therefore, I’m really doing a friend a favour here by showing off her drab to fab upcycle.
 
I could have pretended that it was my upcycle and you wouldn’t have known any better, but Leonie reads my blog.
 
From drab to fab. Simply upcycled chairs with chalk paint and crochet cushion pads
 
 

The Upcycled Chairs

These chairs must have been the bargain of the month, they were bought on a local jumble trail (kind of like a yard sale), only £10 for all six. For my US readers, that’s about $2 a chair BARGAIN!.
 
There wasn’t much wrong with the chairs. They were just some old IKEA dining chairs. Structurally they were sound but rather drab with lots of scratches and marks.
 

Upcycled chairs before.
 
Roll on a few weeks after our chair purchase, I visited Leonie’s house for a party. The first thing I noticed when I walked into the dining room (well besides the food on the table), was her fabulous upcycled chairs. Those rather drab Ikea chairs had been transformed into fresh bright chairs with funky seat pads.
 
The crochet seat pads were what really transformed the upcycled chairs and gave them personality. Especially as every cushion was slightly different. Not only that but after sitting on them for the evening I can confirm that they were very comfy too.
 

DIY Upcycled Chairs

What Was Used to Upcycle the Chairs

 
 

The Upcycled Chairs

 
Chalk paint upcycled chair
 
 
The beauty of chalk paint is that you don’t need to do much prep before painting. The chairs were just given a good wash. Once dried they were painted with the chalk paint. As the chairs were being painted a lighter colour 2 coats of paint were applied.
 
After the paint had dried a finishing wax was rubbed onto the chalk paint to seal it and protect the chairs.
 
 

The Upcycled Chairs Cushion Pads

The cushion pads were the real show-stoppers of this upcycle. I was impressed, even when Leonie confessed to me that she didn’t crochet them herself! A local crafter made them for her (Cottage Gems) for a very reasonable price.
 
The cushions pads are actually very simple to make, they are just basically one giant round granny square. Rowan big wool was used in a combination of colours; black, blue, grey, green and pink. If you look closely every cushion is different in the way the colours are combined.
 
If you can crochet, then these cushion covers will not take long to make. Most good crocheters can make them without a pattern but if you are a beginner you should be able to find a pattern on Ravelery.com.
 
There is a free pattern on Ravelry for this round cushion using Rowan big wool.
 
You will need to join Ravelry to access the free pattern but it is free to join.
 
Crochet cushion covers for upcycled chairs.
 
The colourful seat pads really pop against the white chairs and I love how every one is different.
 
upcycled chair with colourful crochet seat pad.
 
Upcycled Ikea chairs with chalk paint and colorful crochet seat pads.
 
From drab to fab. Simply upcycled chairs with chalk paint and crochet cushion pads.
 

This is not Leonie’s first Pillarboxblue feature you should check out her popular Ikea Map table hack.

 
 
For more fabulous DIY furniture ideas visit the DIYideacenter.
 
 
 

And now for more thrifty goodness!

Check out what my fellow upcyclers created below!



 
 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  5. Sandra

    $2 a chair, what a steal! I would have bought them and scooted out of the store quickly in case the price was a mistake. Great job and I’m happy you were with Leonie that day.Thank you for sharing with us this week at Celebrate Your Story, have a great weekend.

    Reply

  6. Wendy

    The crocheted cushions rock! I loved this post, because I’ve considered posting projects I’ve helped a friend craft. Crafting is like a disease, isn’t it? lol

    Reply

  9. Carol ("Mimi")

    Very pretty! The colorful crocheted cushions really stand out against the fresh, white chalk paint on the upcycled chairs. These chairs look good as new, now — and for just $2.00 each!

    Reply

  10. creativejewishmom/sara

    lovely claire, love the colors of the cushions! thanks for sharing on craft schooling Sunday!

    Reply

  12. Julie

    I love your long explanation of why you were forced to write this post even thought the upcycle was not technically yours. I buy it totally, in fact I think it would have been rude not to share this rags to riches chair story.
    They turned out fabulously. We have wooden ikea chairs, a slightly different style and they don’t really go in our new house (I say new house, it’s been nearly 2 years now!) they would look great in white like this…… A job for the summer methinks, thanks .

    Reply

  16. debbie

    The chairs are stunning. What a little white can do, amazing. Such a good idea to hijack your friends project and feature it on your blog, it deserves to be seen.
    thanks for joining TADA! Thursdays

    Reply

  32. Mary

    I’m always amazed at what a little paint can do. So many people cannot see past what’s in front of them to see potential. These chairs look great.

    Reply

    • Claire Armstrong

      Thank you, I like the word Jumble sale too. When it’s outside people’s houses it’s called a jumble trail as normally quite a few houses in the neighbourhood participate at the same time so you just wander from one to the other. Otherwise, Jumble sales are community events held in places like Church halls and schools. We also have car boot sales.

      Reply

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