Have a seat!

So, it has been almost a week since my last post, which is ridiculous and hopefully not going to happen again:) 

But in all fairness, this has been a huge project weekend for Mike and I. Not only did I have small things around the house that I wanted desperately to finish up...but we also put on a new roof, regraded our back yard, and prepped for our concrete patio that we will be pouring later this week! 

As of Saturday morning our backyard looked like this:

lovely, eh?

As you can see, it was kinda an "all hands on deck" weekend, so I spent very little time inside, much less on my computer:)

I will post more details about our exterior house projects later this week as we wrap up our patio...

In the meantime, I wanted to write about a little chair remodel that I was able to finish over the weekend, despite the chaos:)

These great little unpainted chairs were my Grandma's for many years. She had bought them when my sister and I were little so that we could sit at her high sewing table and work on crafts together. I have so many fond memories of "secretly" working on projects with my sister and my grandma to give to my mom for Christmas, Valentine's Day , and Mother's Day each year:) 

When my Grandma moved into an assisted living home two years ago, she gave me so many of the goodies that she had in her sewing room, so that I could jumpstart my own craft/sewing room in our home. These chairs were part of the many treasures she passed along to me.

As I have been slowly transforming my craft room, some of which I blogged about here... I finally decided what I would do with my chairs to make them fit better with the style of the room.

First, I had mike cut about 5-6" off of each leg, so that when I sat at the sewing table, my legs weren't squished underneath (apparently they aren't quite as scrawny as they were at age 8;)

Then I unscrewed the seat part from the chair frame, and went to work on upholstering them. 

I purchased a roll of batting and 1" foam from the craft store and cut the foam to the exact size of the seat.

I then cut a square piece of batting (doubled-up for strength), making sure it was about 4" larger than my seat on all sides. 

 

Then I flipped it all over to the backside and went to work stapling the batting to the seat. I started with all the corners first, being sure to check the other side periodically to see if the batting was laying flat and not being pulled too taut. Then I worked my way around the perimeter, pulling it snugly as I went. 

 After cutting off all the excess batting and flipping it over, it had really begun to take shape!

The next step was to add my fabric covering. I chose to use drop-cloth canvas that I had purchased from Lowe's for super-cheap. I love the look of it, and because it is made for a utilitarian purpose, not for aesthetic purposes, it has dozens of small imperfections and discolorations that make it rustic and unique.

I forgot to take step by step pictures of the stapling process the second time around (because I was getting so excited about the end result:) but it was basically the same process as the batting. Here is the underside once the stapling was finished:

Once complete, they were even better than I hoped for...

Then they sat this way for about two weeks, waiting for their chair frames to get their makeover.

After waiting...

and waiting...

and waiting...

I finally got my act together and painted the chair frames this weekend. I sanded them first, and attempted to spray paint them, but it quickly became apparent that it would take about 6 coats of spray paint to get the desired look, since the wood absorbed the color almost instantly...

so I opted to use this instead...

Since it was a paint and primer in one, it covered nicely with two coats, and left my little chairs looking like this:

Once I re-attached my seat cushions, they looked amazing!

I just love them and cannot wait to show Grandma the next time she comes to visit:)

Here is another look at the before and after transformation:

I  love the casual, beachy look that they have as well as the durability of the cushions, thanks to the drop-cloth canvas...

...and they fit perfectly into the ultimate plan that I have for the craft room, which I am so excited about!

What about you? 

Have you ever used drop-cloth canvas for a project, and loved the result? 

I would love to hear about it:)

P.S. I link up to "Before and After Party" over at Thrifty Decor Chick...check it out for more great project ideas!