Thrifting can be like Christmas, and this next find made we want to sing Fa-la-la-la-la! And, my gem of a find was only made better by the fact that there was two of them! A pair of lovely, though very outdated, cane, wingback chairs. So the obvious next step was, a Thrifted Cane Wingback Chair Makeover!

I found these beauties online from a wonderful lady that had them in her sunroom, where they had sat since the day SHE originally thrifted them… and just never got around to them. Her lack of space, was my gain. Now for the fun part — I decided to go with a lovely two-tone fabric choice, and keep the tufting on the chair back. (This post may contain affiliate links. This means, should you end up making a purchase, advertisers give me a small percentage of that sale, at absolutely NO EXTRA COST to you. Click here for full disclosures).

I’m not an experienced upholsterer, but looking at these chairs I knew they’d be beginner friendly. The wood frame would work to my advantage, as most of the fabric would lay down with hidden staples, from my trusty stapler! But first, let’s update that banged-up wood. It wasn’t the most desirable wood-tone, and it was pretty shabby… so paint it is!

I’ve been on a total high-contrast / black kick, this year, and I thought a slick black would be perfect. I used Rust-oleum spray paint to keep things easy (and it’s held up great!).

She was ready for fabric, after a few quick coats!

Once I got things ripped apart, I knew I could reuse everything inside. The banding, metal edging, the tufting twine, even the cotton balls the twine was tied to. Yay! This chair made things so easy, I could just follow everything backwards. It was like having a recipe to help with the project.

This be-au-ti-ful bit of tufting on the chair back was so simple. I cut a large rectangle of that gorgeous chevron fabric, and threaded my fabric covered buttons through, with a large needle and the twine, and I was DONE! Not a single stitch!

It was much the same for the seat. I decided against keeping the tufting there, instead I built up some cushion with extra fibre-fill, and then draped my seat fabric over top and began pushing it through the frame, to the bottom.

The front got a few pleats to handle the curvy front, and was stapled in place. This is the only place with exposed staples — easily hidden with some pretty black ribbon… you’ll see on the finished pics.

The seat fabric was pulled through, and stapled to the bottom of the seat frame.

Lastly, I was able to reuse (yay!!), the backing fibre piece — and get the backing fabric in place using the metal edging I mentioned earlier. It was a little tricky, but I searched youtube for some helpful vids (like this one) to get an idea of what I was doing, before diving in.

Not bad for my first time, ya? If I found these chairs again, I would snap them up. It was such a friendly project to attack if you know you have the patience for something like this, just not a lot of experience. I completed one chair in about two days.

And, there we have it. You can see the black ribbon, I mentioned above, to hide the staples that run along the bottom-front, seat of the chair.

Painting the caning black was, sooooo the right choice. I’m crazy for the light it lets through, and the contrast with my neutral white walls.

Not a bad investment. $75 per chair + the cost of fabric. Now, to get to that second chair! Once she’s done I think these babies will look great flanking the fireplace. But, alas, a busy Summer has put that dream on hold for just a little longer. I’ll aim to get them done before Christmas, ha ha!

Should we take one last look before we go? Don’t get dizzy — Happy Monday, friends!!