The Navy Door

Decorate. Repurpose. Restore.

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How To Repurpose an Office Chair

I love to find the new look in old pieces of furniture, lamps, glass bottles, you name it, and I can find a new use for it. So when my husband asked me to help update his office, on a budget, I jumped at the chance to see what I could do on the cheap that would look amazing. In this post, I’m going to show you how I made his 1990’s office chair look modern and masculine.

Here is the chair from my husband’s office. They were all in great shape, just really dated. He was thinking that he would just throw them out and buy new ones until I told him I can save you a ton of money just by covering them with new fabric.

I had seven of these chairs to cover, so I did what any normal person would do, and opened my Amazon app to order a bolt of fabric! I chose a Marine vinyl cognac color indoor/outdoor fabric, that I linked to this post. I really liked this fabric and it was easy to work with. I bought seven yards, assuming that I needed one yard per chair, but I only used about 3/4 of a yard per chair, and I was being very generous with it. I also wanted to make sure that I had enough fabric to start and finish the project.

I removed the screws from the metal frame that were attached to the cushions. I laid the top of the cushion facing down on the wrong side of the fabric, as shown below. I cut the material and left 5-6 inches on each side all the way around. The best way to give yourself enough material is to pull the fabric over the edge of the current fabric line before you cut it off the bolt. You’ll also need a staple gun and the correct staples that fit because they can vary in size. I have a few different staple guns, but this one is the most comfortable to use. Of course, I bought mine at Sears, but I was able to find the same one on Amazon.

I started stapling the material to the bottom, top, then all four sides to keep the material in place. By doing it this way, the corners were easy to manipulate and lay flat, so the end result looks smooth and professional.

Here is what both sides of the cushion look like after I finished stapling all the material down. Be sure to pull the material tightly as you staple all around the cushion then trim away any extra material so that the cushion will fit right back on the metal frame when you put it back together.

Here it is, in just a few minutes. I updated this chair to the 21st century, and saved money doing it!

What do you think? It was easy and fun to do and looks amazing. Please let me know if you have any questions on this project, as I would be happy to help.

Xo Christine

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Repurpose Your Old Wood Picture Frames

I love repurposing old items into new usable pieces. Before I get rid of any old items I don’t use anymore, I try to come up with ideas on how to reuse them.

When we lived in Massachusetts, there was an abundance of vintage shops that had so many great finds. There was this one place I would always pass as I went back and forth to work which had a variety of old wood picture frames that I fell in love with. Not knowing what I would do with them when I purchased them, but knew I had to have them. At the time I owned a little jewelry store and used the picture frames to display jewelry on the wall. After I sold the store and moved back to our home town, I was determined to use these frames again but didn’t know what I would do with them. A family friend that I happen to do many different projects for had asked me to make her a chalkboard for her eyelash studio. Instead of just making a plain chalkboard I thought I would elevate the look by framing the board with my old wood frames. I had two frames that I thought would be perfect for this project.

As you can see in the picture above I had spray painted both of these frames gold, which I actually painted for my store in Mass. These frames have a lot of small detail to them, which I really wanted to highlight to pull the whole project together.

I resprayed both frames gold, to touch up any nicks or scratches the frames may have had while they were in storage. I used Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold Rush that I found at Home Depot. Although I used the same color, one wood frame was a little darker than the other, to begin with, which is why the color looks a little different and also the lighting, unfortunately, was not great either. I then attached the chalkboard pieces, which I also purchased at Home Depot where they cut them to size for me. I used Liquid Nails for small projects, to adhere the chalkboard piece to the back of the frame and let it dry overnight.

When it was completely dry I was able to stand the frame back up and painted the small details of the frame with Deco Art shimmering silver acrylic paint and Deco Art glorious gold paint from Michaels, with a small paintbrush by Craft Smart.

What do you think? Lis loved these chalkboard picture frames for her studio, and I loved that I was able to repurpose pieces that I already had. Please let me know if you have any questions about this project, I would love to help!

XO Christine