Grimy Yucky Chairs, Poof Presto=Pretty!

When we moved to the farm house we had to leave the dining room table we picked out as newly marrieds behind and take with us hand me downs. When we first moved here we recovered them with scrap fabric and sprayed them with lanolin on the poor advice of a "friend".  

Never do that. It was a magnet for grime and yuckiness. It refused to yield the yuck to the steam vac or any amount of scrubbing. Kind of an analogy on that friendship. I digress. I am still bitter about that piss poor advice. Lanolin is for sheep, for wool sweaters, for diapers. NOT for dining room chair covers. Not ever.

So I spent about a year now trying to come up  with a better solution. Diaper cover fabric? PUL? Vinyl cloth? I needed waterproof, washable, pretty, and cheap.  I need something not slippery. I saw on Pinterest someone used seasonal plastic table cloths, but then I saw an actual chair someone had used that on and a year later it was worn, split, and needed to be redone.  

But this, this was inspired. Browsing Amazon.com fabric I saw- indoor/outdoor cloth bolts. I bought one. Tested it. Water just went right through it. Easy to scrub. But what to do about the cloth cushion under it? If water goes right through, the bulk of potty accidents, lemonade, milk, and yogurt goo will saturate the seat through and through?

So.....heavy gage outdoor window plastic covers the pad, indoor/outdoor fabric on top. We used the old seat cover as a template. Cut with pinking sheers.

Staple gun all around, pulling fabric tight over the funny shaped edges.  The staples we used were long and required hammering in as a final secure.

Re-screw to chair base. Jessica comes bi-weekly to help me with projects. She's the best!

Bye bye grime thrones, hello pretty chairs.