Souped Up Desk Chair On the Cheap Vol. II

Up today is part 2 of 3 in a series on how I transformed a bunch of chairs that I scored at great deals for the kids' desks and my kitchen desk! I've already revealed the transformation of the first chair that I got at the Pottery Barn Outlet, which went in my kitchen.  Today is the chair I got for Little's desk.  Here it is before I did a little magic on it:

This chair was free!  It was part of a buy-one-get-one-free sale at the outlet.  Even without that promotion, it was a great deal at only $38 because it had a nick in the back of the frame of the chair, which was really visible (more on that in a second).

It is the Hayden Chair and retails for $249!  I will repeat: I got it for F-R-E-E.  Swooooooon.  Of course it would not do as-is.  First thing I did was address the nick in the back.  I just used a little wood putty over it, let it dry, sanded it down and it was good as new.  

Once the repair was taken care of, I decided to paint it pink!  I have 5 cans of "ballet slipper" spray paint that I scored from Sherwin Williams a few months ago. They were liquidating their supply of several colors and I guess there wasn't a real demand for a soft pink.  I got the cans on clearance for $1.50 each I think.  I knew I'd find a use for them, so I grabbed them.  Even though I had really bad luck with spraying chairs before, I decided to try it again.  I reasoned that this time I had more than enough paint.  So I used some oil based primer and then braved the spray paint.   I am happy to report it worked fine - I just used 3 cans of the paint for full, even coverage.  See?

I wanted to upholster the seat and used a pink toile that I've had laying around in my stash for years.  {I'll do a tutorial on how I made the hard seat super cushy soft and pretty when I post the reveal of Big's desk chair soon.} 

Here's the whole she-bang all together again!

It's come a long way, baby!  Here's a quick before and after for you:

before

after

before

after

What do you think?  I am thrilled with my two chairs so far.  Up next will be Big's desk chair complete with tutorial on how to upholster the seat.  Stay tuned! 

See you swoon,