Tie Dye Bar Stools

Last winter, my sister and I went on a little road trip down to Key Largo to escape the brutal winter we were experiencing in Canada. After our first night, we thought we’d treat ourselves to a little shopping before making more tracks. We pulled into a plaza and noticed a place called Southeastern Salvage. Somehow, the name intrigued us and we decided to check it out. Shopping is shopping, amirite?

Oh. My. Goodness. I fell in love with this place the instant I stepped inside. If ever a store was tailor-made for me, this was it. Beach-themed items, bright colors and – best of all – cheap prices!! Seriously, guys, this store is great! They have absolutely beautiful, rustic furniture and the cutest accessories. What the store lacks in atmosphere, it more than makes up for in what they sell.

Anyway, before I get too carried away, let’s get back to the original reason for this post. One of the first things I laid my eyes upon was this chair:

Isn’t this chair awesome?? I needed two bar stools for my kitchen island and these would go perfectly in the space! As I was already envisioning how great they’d look, my sister gently brought me back down to earth. She reminded me that a) there was only one chair and I needed two and b) we’re two women that love clothes and our car was already filled to the brim. Boo. Sadly, I left The Perfect Chair behind and bought myself a few smaller accessories to pacify myself until next time.

Once I got home, I made it my mission to find similar chairs. I searched online and checked Kijiji, but I found nothing. Then, I was at a local secondhand shop one day and came across these:

These were only $7.99 each! Immediately, my crafty little DIY mind could see my own version of The Perfect Chair come to life. They were in great condition and the white covers attach with velcro, so I could easily remove them! I was vibrating with excitement as I forced them into my little car and hurried home.

I pulled off the covers, tossed them into the wash, and got to work. I used The Perfect Chair as my inspiration and decided to create tie dye bar stools similar to that.

I used two colors of dye to try to achieve a similar look. I started in the seam where the back of the chair meets the seat and used turquoise. I drew a line of dye and then painted upward and downward from there. Then, starting at either end of the chair cover, I used the darker blue and painted in toward the turquoise. That way, it would create an ombre-like effect and have the two colors fade nicely into one another.

I had to let the dye sit for hours and hours before washing them. I ended up washing them 3 times in cold water, just to be sure that the dye fully set.

Once I put the covers back on the chairs, I liked the way they looked, but they still weren’t 100% there. I decided that I needed to paint them black to be more like The Perfect Chair.

Before painting the chairs, I had to remove the diabolical residue that the price stickers left behind. One great trick to getting sticker residue off things is to use peanut butter. Magic!

I also had to cut the legs of the stools down because they were bar-height and my kitchen island is counter-height. PS, I suck at sawing (nothing a little sanding won’t fix). Then, I sanded down the surface of the legs to make sure my spray paint would stick properly.

Hooray for spray paint!

Here’s how they turned out. I wanted you to see how they looked compared to my original inspiration. They ended up looking quite different, but I <3 them! They work great in my kitchen and, best of all, they’re one-of-a-kind.