Ideas for Refinishing Chairs

Paint

• Revive your chairs with a new coat of paint. This is a good refinishing approach for old chairs with chipped paint or even new chairs painted in a color you dislike or that clashes with the decor in your home. Strip the old paint off the chairs, sanding down any varnish first. You may need to apply a primer, depending upon the chairs' base material. Them apply one or more coats of a different color paint and a layer of lacquer or varnish. Chairs newly painted a bright color like yellow or orange will instantly vivify a bland space.

Replace Upholstery

• Swap out the upholstery on the chairs to give them a new lease on life. Upholstery projects can be short and sweet, for example, if you're simply covering the old upholstery on wooden dining room chairs, or complex and perhaps best left to a professional, if you have a pair of valuable antique wing chairs. Factors to consider when selecting new upholstery include the decor in the room and the frequency of food spills the chairs are likely to endure.

Revive Old Cane

• Give chairs made partly or completely of woven materials a facelift by reweaving or repairing them. For example, wicker chairs can sometimes sprout loose, broken ends that stick out. The woven sections of cane-backed chairs may sag, break, fray, become misshapen, or get faded in the sun. Replace the cane sections with fresh cane or patch battered spots. Trim or re-glue loose wicker fibers.

New Wood Tone

• Alter wooden chairs with a new wood stain. This is a particularly appropriate refinishing approach for light-colored wooden chairs, because all you have to do is sand off any varnish or lacquer applied to the surface of the chairs and then apply a new wood stain and seal. Taking a set of blond wood chairs to a deep black shade will dramatically transform them. Alternately, if the chairs are antiques complete with flaking paint, Country Living suggests leaving them alone (flaking paint and all) to showcase their character.