Dining chairs are one of the most sneakily expensive furniture and home decor items; instead of a single price you have to multiply the price by the amount of chairs you need. Suddenly a $30 purchase is a $250 purchase. And that’s for inexpensive chairs! You can easily drop $1,000 on dining chairs.

My dining area desperately needed an upgrade, but I did not have $250 to drop on new chairs. That’s when I pulled up my trusty source of free furniture (Facebook marketplace) and started imagining the possibilities. I found 4 free chairs, and in addition to the 4 chairs I already had (purchased for $20 circa 2013), I had a big (but cheap) project.

The chairs were an outdated blonde wood with peeling faux leather, but they were free and very sturdy. 7 cans of spray paint later, I have matching chairs and a fresh dining room. Read on to see how I did it and how much I spent. If your chairs don’t have upholstered seats, you can spend even less!

Tools Needed:

Drill or Phillips head screwdriver

Flathead screwdriver
Needle nose pliers
Drop cloth or painting tarp
Fine grit sandpaper
All-purpose cleaner and rag
Face mask and safety goggles (for eye and respiratory protection)
Staple gun and staples
Box cutter for cutting off excess fabric (optional)
Note: all listed tools are relatively inexpensive to acquire, and part of a basic tool kit. All of them are worth it to purchase if you don’t have them already.

Cost Breakdown:

Spray paint: $35
New batting: $10
New upholstery: $21

Step 1: Remove Chair Pads and Fabric

blair's hands using a flathead screwdriver to remove staples from fabric on a thin piece of wood updating dining chairs

If your chair has a padded seat or top, use a drill to remove any screws, a hammer to remove any nails, or gently pry the seat up if it’s glued down. 4 of mine were screwed in and 4 were hot glued down (so, easy to pry up). You may want some additional thin plywood handy if your seats are glued down with tougher glue, in order to replace them.

Using your trusty flathead screwdriver (with needle nose pliers for backup), detach the staples holding the fabric in place. If the staples are too tight (which typically happens in the manufacturing process), us a box cutter to simply cut the fabric away. This is less clean, but the excess remaining fabric can easily be covered up when you install the new fabric.

Throw away any yellowed or compressed foam padding (this is especially important for removing any lingering allergens that may be present). If your chairs are all wood, skip this step.

Step 2: Sand and Clean Chairs

Using a fine grain sand paper (between 180 and 250) to lightly score the wood (make sure you sand in the direction of the wood grain). This is good for smoothing out any minor scratches or bumps, and it also helps the paint adhere to the wood better.

Use a gentle cleaner (I like to make my own out of white vinegar, water, and dawn) to clean off the excess sawdust after sanding. This also helps to clean any allergens or dirt that may have gotten trapped under the chair pad. Cleaning is especially important if you plan to sell the chairs or someone in your household has serious allergies.

Step 3: Paint Chairs

Blair holding a can of spray paint in the color matte pale sage

Using the color of your choice, paint the chairs with about 3 layers of paint. I used the Rustoleum paint and primer in matte pale sage. I was hoping the color would be a nice greenish-grey, but it turned out more blue than anticipated. Luckily, the color was still gorgeous.

I prefer spray paint as it’s faster, cheaper, and requires fewer tools than traditional paints; though traditional interior paints can be a bit more sturdy. I had to go back and buy more paint 3 times; so I would plan roughly 1 can of paint per chair.

Matte paint hides more imperfections than glossy paint, but it’s also easier to scratch. You’ll want at least 3 coats, with at least 20 minutes of drying time between each coat. You can also add a final clear sealing topcoat, but that’s only necessary for really high-traffic furniture (such as the top of a kitchen table).

Hindsight note: I recommend lightly sanding the entire chair before paint application as it will adhere better and require fewer touch-ups.

A light wooden chair covered with a thin layer of green spray paint updating dining chairs

On the first coat, go as lightly as possible. It’s okay if some wood shows through; you’ll cover it up in later coats. It’s more important to prevent drips. Additionally, several thin coats of paint are stronger than 1 or 2 coats of thick, gloopy paint. There’s no need to paint the areas that will later be covered again by the chair pad, and you can paint the underside of the chair if you’d like to but it’s not necessary.

Once you’ve applied several coats, if the paint bubbles or drips in any areas, simply go over those areas lightly with your fine grain sandpaper and apply an additional coat. Let the paint dry for a full 24 hours after the application of the final coat, otherwise your house will smell like paint fumes (and also for safety reasons).

Step 4: Replace Foam in Chairs

Using the plywood outline of the chair pad, trace the amount of foam you’ll need with a marker into the foam. The foam outline should be the precise size of the plywood. The thickness of the foam depends on the thickness of the original pad; if it’s too thick, yet the same shape you can work with it, but too thin and the wooden sides might dig in uncomfortably.

I bought my foam padding at Joann Fabrics in a precut 72” by 24” roll, but you can also figure the exact square footage of foam padding you’ll need and purchase it by the yard. With a coupon the padding was just over $10.

Step 5: Recover with New Fabric

Trace the amount of fabric you’ll need to recover the chairs. The fabric outline should extend about 2 inches from the edge of the plywood in all directions (more if your foam padding is over 1 inch thick). Using the staple gun, pull the fabric taut over each edge and staple into place. Keep your flathead screwdriver and pliers handy, so that if the fabric gets a funny bubble on the edge you can remove a few staples and fix it.

Once you’ve stapled one side, pull the fabric taut and staple on the other side. Make sure not to pull the fabric too tightly, otherwise it will bubble and wrinkle. Fold the fabric as neatly as you can at the corners, and fortify with extra staples. More staples are always better than fewer staples for securing the fabric.

Step 6: Replace Chair Pads

blair's hand holding a yellow staple gun as she attached fabric to a thin wooden board updating dining chairs

Using screws, nails, or whatever the initial attachment method was, reattach the chair pads to the chairs. In my case, the original pads were glued on with hot glue and I drilled pilot holes to attach them with screws. When recovering furniture, it’s always good to keep in mind whether you’ll ever want to update it. Since I covered the chairs in white fabric, I wanted to make sure I could recover them in the event of a nasty spill. While white isn’t crazy practical, it is easy to find inexpensive white upholstery fabric.

Voila! No I have chairs that look good as new but cost hardly anything. For what I would’ve spent on 2 new IKEA dining chairs, I now have 8 updated chairs that can easily be repainted or recovered as my tastes change.

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