Two-Hour DIY: Plain Chairs Become Statement Chairs

You know when you look around and everything’s OK, but you can’t help but feeling a little blah? When you want an exclamation point, but all you see is a period? The exclamation points of home decor are pops of color, and the nice thing about them is that they’re made in single afternoons, not whole weekends. Take these chairs, for example. They were fine, mid-centuryish chairs and already had some nice style going on. But with some painter’s tape, a couple hours, and a lick of bright paint using Emerald® paint and primer in one by Sherwin-Williams, we gave them just a touch of yasss.

Correction: We gave them just a touch of yasss!!!!

How to Make Some Just-OK Chairs Much Happier

1. Stop by your local flea market or neighborhood tag sale to find the diamond(s) in the rough, just waiting to get the good-vibes treatment.
2. Give them a good wipe-down. Wash with clean warm water and detergent (liquid dish soap would work great). Let them dry.
3. Then, cordon off a section of the chair you want to happify with painter’s tape. Actually, choose two: one on the back and one on the seat. This should be the biggest paint layer on each section, roughly 1/3 of the chair’s seat or back.
4. Now the fun begins. Choose your base color layer — it should be the darkest (we went with Calypso SW 6950) — and lay it down. Brush away from the edge of the tape into the section you want to color to help keep the edge crisp when you peel the tape back up. A mini roller and a sponge brush will work well for this. Peel off the painter’s tape while the paint is still wet (this prevents chipping), and let this layer dry.
5. Create 1–2 more color sections by blocking off new sections of the chair with more tape strips. We got the look we were looking for by using lighter colors there than with the base layer, namely Dishy Coral SW 6598 and Belize SW 6945. Now, lay down your second and third colors.
6. Peel off the tape and let these layers dry for a happy geometric reward. We decided to create some isosceles realness here but you could easily do the same thing with multi-tonal colors and horizontal lines to create a sophisticated, happy gradient.

Emerald® paint and primer in one by Sherwin-Williams is great for easy, long-lasting projects like this. They’re good for happy walls, too (we’re looking at you, Swimming SW 6764).

Pick your perfect colors at Sherwin-Williams.com and get started on your own happy paint project.

^{This post was created by the Apartment Therapy Creative Studio and is sponsored by Sherwin-Williams.
Thank you for supporting the brands that make Apartment Therapy possible.}