DIY – Refurbished Vintage metal patio chairs

My parents had this darling vintage patio table with patio chairs.  The is a glass table with white iron chairs with yellow vinyl cushions on them.  They had purchased this patio set at a yard sale several years ago. After many sunny summers and long hard winters the yellow vinyl finally deteriorated.  My dad had put all of the chairs in his truck to take them to the landfill.  While looking them over I see that the metal frame on the chairs is in great shape and can easily be painted. Knowing I could figure out something for the seat I asked my dad to bring the chairs to my house instead of the dump.

Making a trip to Hobby Lobby  I found some fun bright printed fabric to create new seat cushions for the patio chairs.  I also purchased a thick grade of clear vinyl to put over the fabric and some new foam. Wishing that I had more pictures of how I refurbished these patio chairs. Sometimes when I get caught up in the moment I forget to take pictures. I have linked similar projects with more detailed instructions at the bottom.

Once back back home I flipped the chairs over and unscrewed the cushion from the base of the metal chairs.  Removing the cushions off of the metal bases I came to realize that the wood the cushion and vinyl was stapled to was completely rotten.  Since I was hoping to reuse the wood and just replace the foam cushion and fabric. This threw a wrench in what I thought was going to be a quick recover of the chairs.   Because I already had the cushions off of the metal frames I went ahead and cleaned and spray painted the metal frames with some fresh white paint.

To finish the chairs I ran and purchased some plywood.  After I had purchased some new plywood I used one of the old rotten wooden rounds as a template and traced the size of the circle onto  the new plywood.  I used a jig saw to cut out the new round wood bases for the patio chairs.

Next I used the round wood bases to trace a pattern onto my new foam for the seat cushions.  Cut out the foam and then glue it to the top of the wooden base.  Furthermore I cut my fabric and vinyl into large enough squares to cover the foam and wood base.  I stapled the fabric and vinyl layer around each round wooden base to create my new cushion seat.

Last I screwed each cushion onto the metal frames.  I love how they turned out.  I am so glad I was able to salvage these cute patio chairs.

For more ideas and detailed instructions on refurbishing patio furniture check out our Iron bistro table, porch swing, and patio set refurbish.