A Walk On The Wild Side

I finally checked one thing off my to-do list. I bought these chairs online for cheap, and I believed the reviews which seems to be a mistake. Because when they arrived the quality was, to my mind, just not there. I called to send them back, and lo and behold they would give me a discount to keep them. OK. They were cheap when I bought them, now they're really cheap.

We had super comfy dining room chairs before. Lots of cushioning, but they sat very low and they were upholstered to match the salmon armed dining chairs. This was OK in a house where the dining room was separate from the other rooms and other colors. But now, with an open floor plan, the striped green, yellow and pink chairs were just too much conflict with the rest of the furnishings. The old chairs have found a new home with my daughter, which provided the opportunity to buy new ones. Yay! But then, not so much.

These are the chairs we received.

The generic beige seating had to go. I have black bar stools next to the dining room table, so my thought was to paint these chairs black and change the seat fabric to blend in better with the rest of the furnishings.

I bought some zebra print chenille fabric that I had been lusting for from Hancock Fabrics, using all the discounts and coupons of course. Covered them in batting so that they made nice little bundles of, hopefully, cushy seats.

Laid them out on my daring zebra fabric.

Only to realize I was about 6" short of sufficient fabric to reach around the backs for stapling. Aargh. Back to Hancock's for more fabric. What's the saying - penny smart, pound foolish? I scrimped just a scotsh too much and ended up paying even more for it. Even with coupons this is not the cheapest fabric. Retail is $36/yard but it's usually 50% off.

With plenty of fabric the cushions were ready for covering and final stapling. And here is the result.

I was playing with the leftover fabric to see how it would look as a runner. Since the chairs match the table, I don't think they're going to get painted. I was trying to tie in the salmon chairs, which we love but that color isn't repeated anywhere in the house, and the black bar stools with rush seats.

I think it looks better, don't you?