Where the Hearth Is: From Flea Market to Fabulous

My daughter decided with the advent of her 14th birthday that she wanted to ditch the princess theme her room had for the last decade (and the past three houses).

Like most of America, the budget’s tight at our house, so many of her ideas had to be revamped to an affordable range—especially when it came to furniture.

Christopher Lowell once told me, “The cheapest way to make an instant change is paint.” And he wasn’t just talking about walls. 

The furniture gracing my daughter’s room, with the exception of a desk she inherited from her great-grandfather, was flea market finds, repainted a la Christopher. 

Everything was stippled lullaby green with a dash of iridescent emerald and soft blue, with a few baby pink roses and forget-me-nots lovingly painted by Mom. 

It’s now all glossy white, courtesy of a can of Rustoleum. With that change, the princess-turned-diva was able to tolerate keeping the old stuff.

Well, most of the old stuff. The Disney princess lamp had to go.

She really wanted an oversized chair for reading, a smaller, cushioned chair that would fit under her desk and looked “French,” and a couple of dressy pillows for her bed.

Mom doesn’t sew, at least, not with a machine. My last attempt had the needle running over my thumb, much to my own parent’s chagrin. But I can do some simple hand stitching. And I’m a whiz with a staple gun, a hammer and hobnails, so reupholstering doesn’t daunt me.

You can find some great, inexpensive items at many of the Powder Springs area thrift stores, such as on Brownsville Road, and at consignment stores such as  downtown

“We don’t really have room for a lot of furniture items,” Hand-Me-Up's owner Dianne PreVatt confesses, “but we do get kids’ chairs and tables, and those go fast.”

My best snag was a $4 bamboo chair at Goodwill. It has a pretty, criss-crossed curved back that's the perfect size to tuck into my daughter’s kneehole (and newly repainted) desk. 

The size and backing were the only things that were perfect when I bought it. 

The round, cushioned seat had disgusting stains on it, and the wood finish was dull, scratched and nonexistent in several spots. My daughter personally handed me the remains of the Rustoleum can, and together we white washed all the flaws after I removed the cushion. 

Many cushioned chairs have removable seats, especially in dining rooms. Flip the chair over, unscrew the bottom, take a piece of your fabric, cut it to fit the cushion and fold over the edges enough to staple, cover the cushion and staple the fabric in place, and screw the bottom back into the chair. 

“You don’t even need to have matching chairs if the fabric matches,” says Tracy Morgan of Kiwiquilts.

Morgan doesn’t advise going with her material for the heavy-duty stuff, however, since “I specialize in cottons, and they’re not durable for heavy use."  

"But," Morgan adds, "you can certainly match the colors and the materials with a lighter cotton for draperies and table runners and napkins.”

Kiwiquilts caters to quiltmakers, and there have been some darling reupholstered kid chairs done using old, torn quilts for fabric. 

What kinds of fabric are appropriate for heavier use? Annette Hicks of Hancock Fabrics in nearby Douglasville suggests “velvets, crushed velvets and damask for more formal seating. It depends on your taste.”

Personally, I’ve reupholstered the entire carved mahogany living room set my husband inherited from his great-grandmother. I used a curved upholstery needle and an entire bolt of burgundy car upholstery velvet I got on a heavily marked down sale at Joann’s Etc.

Two teens, two dogs, one not-so-meticulous husband—do I need to explain why I went with the dark, easy-to-clean material? (One of the many surprises about velvet is that it mops up nicely and hides less-than-perfect seams.)

If you’re going more casual, Hicks recommends some of the weatherproof materials they sell in the outdoor section of Hancock Fabrics. “We have some really nice canvases.”

My diva was going for French chic, so I found some woven fabric (marked down) at Hobby Lobby that matched her newly-painted walls. I covered a $20 yard sale wing chair with it, having enough left over for the aforementioned desk chair cushion and throw pillows. Instant style.

Now if only I can figure out how to get her out of her room.