Can Your Trashy Chair Be Salvaged With Stencils?

While recently renovating my bedroom, a chair on the street caught my eye as something that would make a great addition to my bedroom if it just...looked a bit more presentable. If you have an hour or two on your hands to save a chair, this project might be able to save all of the chairs you find on the street. (Or maybe just that one you have sitting out in the garage).

How to upcycle a chair with stencils and paint:

1. Locate your chair. Wipe all of the dust and dirt off of it with eco-friendly cleaner. If you're nervous about getting paint on the floor in your painting area, be sure to cover the flooring underneath the chair with newspaper or any other sort of paint shield.

2. Give your chair a paint job. If your chair in need of help is as desperate as mine was, you're going to have to repaint its base before laying down any stencil art.

3. While the base paint is drying, find a cereal box or any other kind of box with relatively thin cardboard.

4. Draw a stencil pattern onto a piece of the cardboard. If you're not an artist, you can get inspiration from a stencil online, trace a stencil, or just wing it like I did. Once your stencil is drawn, carefully cut it out with an X-Acto knife.

5. When your base paint is fully dried, place your stencil on the chair and paint over it with a small paint brush. (Avoid spray paint at all costs!). Enjoy! This is a wonderful way to upcycle and reuse a has-been chair.