When our family moved into our home, it was 100% not us! We loved the neighborhood and area, which is really what sold us, but the house was not really our cup of tea. Little by little, we have been choosing rooms and remodeling- making it fit our style and personalities. (Some of these projects, I will feature in the “Model Home” section of Living Swagger- so stay tuned!) The latest project on that list is our kitchen and dining room.
The vibe we are going for in the dining room is farmhouse meets Scandinavian (a nod to my Swedish heritage). One thing that had to stay was the Vejle Stole & Mobelfabrik Mid Century Danish teakwood dining table that was handed down from my grandparents (just like the one pictured below). The chairs (which we are sadly down to only three of) did not make the cut though, and made the move into storage. 
When my husband’s grandparents passed a few years back, we inherited a really cool antique set of wooden chairs with spectacularly carved back. The seat fabric was pretty dated (almost as dated as the second set of fabric we found below it…) though, and was definitely ready for some TLC. What better chairs to go with our table in the dining makeover?!?! I absolutely love the idea that the set could be a collaborative inheritance from both of our grandparents.
We removed the seats (complete with both sets of fabric and a cushion that was so well-worn that it literally stuck to the wood in places), sanded each chair by hand, and scrubbed the wood seat base clean.
Once they were sanded we sprayed each of them a flat off-white (when spraying big projects, make sure you are in a well ventilated area and wear a mask!), which really made the deep carving of the chair back pop.
We chose two different bright upholstery fabrics (from fabric.com) in Swedish-minded colors, and purchased 2″ high density foam cushions from our local JoAnn’s. Cutting each fabric square to fit the seats, and making sure to pull the fabric tight, we stapled the new fabric and cushions into place.
Once the cushions were restyled we simply screwed them back into place and WOW- what a difference!
I adore everything about the way that these chairs turned out, and how they look in our dining room (in progress)! The end-goal is to build a bench seat to go along the wall, meaning that only four of these chairs will be used daily. The bench is a whole other project though (coming to you soon) so for now, we are using and loving our newly updated chairs!!
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