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In 2015, just before moving into our current home, I began a search for a dining set. For the first time we were buying a house and not an apartment, and it was the first home we would live in with a formally demarcated dining space. I wasn’t sure that we would use it as one, but with a baby under one, I was conscious that someday it may be beneficial for family life. Stuck in the moment of identity loss you get on maternity leave I actually turned our dining room into an adult evening chill out space which I dubbed the cocktail room since it housed both a drinks trolley and a cocktail cabinet I’d bought when I was 18.
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Why do I tell you all of this? Well, because there was a reason I didn’t create a dining space – price. My absolute shock at the price of a dining set. A little like weddings, I just couldn’t understand why they cost so much. So I continued to use our fold away trestle table with a nice tablecloth over when we had friends round for dinner. And I started hunting for some cheap but beautiful stackable chairs. Step in six Mid-Century plywood stackable chairs for under £100 via eBay.
Before:
These chairs were very unloved when I bought them, with worn brown velvet seat cushions and heavy, aged, polyurethane varnish
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I hurried off to deepest Surrey to collect a set of chairs that my mother thought were hideous. She had a point, they were in a bit of a sorry state, all tarnished orange polyurethane varnish and tired brown velvet seat cushions (see above). I sanded the chairs by hand, and I confess the last few chairs did not get the same attention from my tired hands as the first! I had bought some inexpensive fabric to cover the seats with and used danish oil to seal the wood.
The original upcycle, the chair in the fore was only lightly sanded and as a result still bore layers of old varnish.
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In 2019 I was very lucky to be gifted a family sized wood dining table from MADE in a Mid-Century style which was perfect as Ted was now at an age where family dinners and craft activities needed a permanent space, and I turned the cocktail room into a dining room proper. I was so pleased with the original dining room makeover.
But skip forward to 2022 and those chairs are looking pretty tired again, some had even been used as garden chairs in the years before we had a dining table. So, this year, I decided to give them a glow-up, and since the dining table has taken a battering from felt tip and the like I thought I’d take that back to raw wood and seal again. I now have an electric hand sander and although the chairs and the table took at least a full day to sand this was much easier than my memory of hand sanding! Instead of plain danish oil I used one with a touch of white by Osmo to seal both and was so impressed with how lovely the grains looked in their new finish.
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I wanted to upholster the seat cushions in something that felt special and unique and knew exactly which brand I would approach for this. Kirkby Design are a total favourite of mine for textiles, I will never forget their Wes Anderson style tube carriages at London Design Week in 2019. I chose the Flow design from Kirkby’s sustainability range in monochrome. It is made from PET certified recycled polyester yarn produced from the waste of plastic bottles. Not only does it have great sustainability credentials, it is also a stunning design which has really elevated these chairs to something far more special. The fabric feels soft and enduring which is great for family life and was simple to upholster using a staple gun.
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The only snag with this makeover was that our old, worn but still loved, rug clashed with my new chairs. Happily a total impulse purchase at Christmas was the perfect replacement. I don’t usually make impulsive purchases for the home, but seeing a rug I loved, the Tiphede rug at IKEA for £17 when buying a Christmas tree, turned out to be a canny move. I wondered if I may use it as an outdoor rug in the summer but it’s just perfect in here. I am so thrilled with our dining room glow up, amazing how a few small changes can make such a huge difference, isn’t it?
The fabric for my chairs was kindly gifted by Kirkby Design after I approached them, I only work with brands that I love and think you will too.
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