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Stenciled Chair Seats: How to Update Old Dining Chairs

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One thing I love is giving a plain object new life and personality with a simple change.  Sprucing up my beat up dining chairs by stenciling the seats is precisely that kind of project!

With just a little patience and some paint, I was able to take my kitchen chairs from boring to beautiful in no time. 

Give old chairs new life by stenciling the seats! It's an easy project that packs a lot of punch and will help make a statement in your home.

After six years of use, my white kitchen chairs were getting a little beat up.    The seats were in especially poor condition due to my kids’ use of a portable booster seat on top of them.  It scratched the painted finish off of almost every seat.  

Give old chairs new life by stenciling the seats! It's an easy project that packs a lot of punch and will help make a statement in your home.

I always toyed with the idea of repainting the chairs, but I pretty much despise spray paint because I never do it correctly (duh). Since the easy way out wasn’t an option, I was just going to leave them. Brush painting these chairs was too much work for me.

But then a lightbulb went off in my head: stencil the chair seats to fix the problem left by the booster seat and give the chairs a totally cool new look at the same time!

Supplies Needed to Stencil Chair Seats

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Stenciled Chair Seats: How to with a Lasting Finish

If possible, unscrew the the seats from the chairs. This will make it much easier to paint the seats and add the stencil design.

Next, clean the seats (any any other part of the chairs that you’re painting). You can use a Magic Eraser, or clean it with a pre-paint cleaner that doesn’t leave a residue (like Krud Kutter or TSP).

Now, give the seats a scuff sanding, and wipe off all of the dust. Then, paint the seats whatever base color you’d like. For this project, I chose Americana Decor Chalky Finish Paint in Vintage (a soft blue green color).

Give old chairs new life by stenciling the seats! It's an easy project that packs a lot of punch and will help make a statement in your home.

Let the paint thorougly dry, and then apply a light coat of spray adheisve to the back of the stencil you’re using. The spray adhesive not only holds the stencil in place, but it also prevents paint from bleeding through or seeping through the stencil pattern and ruining the crisp lines you’re after.

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Press the stencil onto the middle of the chair seat, and then place painter’s tape on the edges of the stencil for extra hold.  The painter’s tape is probably unnecessary, but I like to play it safe.

Give old chairs new life by stenciling the seats! It's an easy project that packs a lot of punch and will help make a statement in your home.

Next, dip the roller into the Americana Multi-Surface Paint and remove as much of the paint as possible from the roller. You want to use as little paint as possible here.

Then, gently roll over the entire stencil.  

Once the first coat dried, I applied another.  TIP:  If you’re impatient like me, get out your hair dryer and speed up the drying process.

Give old chairs new life by stenciling the seats! It's an easy project that packs a lot of punch and will help make a statement in your home.

After the second coat of paint dries, gently remove the stencil. Match it up with an already painted edge, and stencil the next section.

Repeat this process until the entire chair seat is stenciled.

Give old chairs new life by stenciling the seats! It's an easy project that packs a lot of punch and will help make a statement in your home.

Once all of the stenciling is complete, seal each of the stenciled chair seats with polyurethane. This will protect your hard work!

Give old chairs new life by stenciling the seats! It's an easy project that packs a lot of punch and will help make a statement in your home.

Reattach the chair seats by screwing them back onto the chair frames.

Give old chairs new life by stenciling the seats! It's an easy project that packs a lot of punch and will help make a statement in your home.

Then sit back and enjoy the new look of your old chairs!

Give old chairs new life by stenciling the seats! It's an easy project that packs a lot of punch and will help make a statement in your home.

Stenciling old furniture is such an amazing way to give it a whole new life. It’s a win for the environment and for your wallet!

Give old chairs new life by stenciling the seats! It's an easy project that packs a lot of punch and will help make a statement in your home.

Would you try to make over a set of old chairs with a stencil? Let me know in the comments section below!

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • Bre says

      Hey, Jenny!! Thank you. 🙂 Yes your porch that you did with their stencils is awesome!! Such a great product line! Have a great weekend!

  3. Cat says

    I have used Cutting Edge Stencils to brighten up a wall in a dark corner of my house – and I felt the same way afterward – wanting to stencil ALL THE THINGS! Ha! And if it wasn’t for baby #2 having come soon after, I might have done just that. My favorite is the Casablanca all over stencil, which is the one I used. Your seats look so good – and it’s giving me a hankering to do another stencil project! Nice work, Bre!

    Reply

    • Bre says

      Aw, thanks, Cat!!! That’s so awesome that you’ve worked with their stencils before – aren’t they awesome? Thanks so much for stopping by. I am looking forward to checking out your blog! xo

  10. Elaine X. says

    I love what you did with your chairs! The stencils make the chairs look so much more fancy! I love all the stencils on Cutting Edge Stencil’s website that I can’t decide! I’d love to try a stencil to makeover my bathroom!

    Reply

    • Bre says

      Thank you, Elaine! I know – they have such gorgeous patterns that it’s hard to choose! A stencil in a bathroom is such a great idea! I was thinking of doing that in my kids’ bathroom! Great pattern without the hassle of wallpaper.

    • Bre says

      Yes! I think that’s one of their most popular stencils! It’s gorgeous. Thank you so much for entering, and good luck, Denise!! 🙂

    • Bre says

      Oh that would be a perfect choice for anything little girl’s space!! Thanks so much and good luck! 🙂

  18. Angelica says

    I was going to say one of the damask stencils was my favorite but then I saw the INDIAN INLAY FURNITURE STENCIL KIT BY KIM MYLES and my decision was made! I love how versatile it and I have so many projects in mind already. 🙂 The chairs are absolutely adorable, now you just need to do the table to match! Oooh, that would certainly be gorgeous!

    Reply

    • Bre says

      Oh Angelica you are so right!! Wanna help me with that project – aaah it’s a little intimidating! 🙂 I think your stencil choice is GORGEOUS! Thanks for entering and good luck! 🙂

    • Bre says

      Thanks, Ruthie!! Someday I will re-stain that table a bit darker, but for now I’m just gonna let my kids do their art projects on it and beat it up! 🙂

  28. Sandi says

    What a change! The chairs looks so fresh and new again. I am curious about the Ben paint. Is that Benjamin Moore? Very nice work.

    Reply

    • Bre says

      Thank you, Sandi!! And yes, the Ben paint is a line of paint they carry at Benjamin Moore. It is low VOC and has a primer in it, I believe. I think because it’s thicker than the multi-surface paint, it tended to “goop up” a bit more (if that makes any sense at all! Ha!)

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