Cane Chair Makeover

This post may contain affiliate links.

Broken Cane Chair, Make It Over!

These two old chairs were only $1 each! A broken cane chair and another chair missing its seat, left all alone at a garage sale because they needed work! Gaping holes that needed to be filled.

Luckily I knew the fix would be relatively easy for these two chairs and my two bucks was well spent. Having a chair re-caned is almost a lost art and can be expensive. I decided to forgo the original look and create my own new look. This is a great idea if you want to blend mismatched chairs together with a cohesive feel. I love the look of non matching furniture that feels like it goes together. I have an affiliate link supply list below, this means should you make a purchase I might receive a small commission, your price stays the same.These chairs sat at my house for a while, waiting to be made over. Every time I walked by I thought about the gaping hole staring at me, waiting to be filled. Our hearts are like that. Wide open and needing to be filled. So often life happens and we find ourselves with wide wounds. A relationship gone sour, death of a loved one, rejection, job loss, ability loss, friendships broken, betrayal. All these things leave a hole in us. A hole we long to fill and usually, we want it filled right back up with the same thing that was there before. We want our friend back, we want our job back, we want our comfortable normal back, but it’s just not in the cards.

As painful as the gaps can be they are an open wound waiting to be healed. Jesus wants to bring that emptiness to light, clean it out and fill it up. We’ve got to be open to the idea that what God wants to fill us with might look different than we’d hoped, what was originally there. But I will restore your health and heal your wounds, declares the Lord, because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares. Jeremiah 30:17
As hurt people we often self medicate. We seek out impulsive things that we think will fill us. Shopping, drinking, excess sleeping, over eating, drugs, gossip, obsessing over our loss. Those things might temporarily fill the gap, but they will fade and the wide open void will remain. Do you find yourself coming round and round to the same hole? Maybe it’s time to consider a different medium.

Recognizing your damage is the first step and praying for healing is the next. After that be on the lookout for something new and different to heal the space in your being. The good news is you aren’t alone in this makeover, all you need to do is keep your eyes open. Stop working and let the healing come. Maybe it’s time to let a friendship go. Maybe the loss of your loved one has given you experience to pour into another grieving soul. Your wounds can heal when you shift your focus. Instead of self medicating, allow your old medication to be the signal to pray. Do this one thought at a time, one minute at a time, one day at a time, one week at a time until the change comes. Filter every thought through truth. I’m betting the devil is quick to pounce on this sore spot in your soul, telling you lies, holding you down and away from freedom. When guilt and fault, blaming and self loathing, rise around you stop and don’t allow those lies to fill your gap. Allow God to fill it with truth, forgiveness, change and healing. Day by day like layers of paint, a fresh coat will go down and build up until the hole is filled. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10:4  

Friend, God wants you to be whole. I want you to be whole. Pray for eyes to see your situation differently. Pray for the gaping hole in your heart to be filled with a fresh new outlook. By his wounds we are healed. The work of pressing on in a different direction is hard, but there is nothing better than the healing of a wound done by the grace of God. Maybe you’ve never trusted God before and I will, with all the love in my heart kindly ask, how’s that worked so far? If this is new territory or even old, I’ll happily pray beside you if you want, just let me know. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24 These cane chairs got a new life and I think it looks good on them. I’m guessing it will be the same for you. Here is how I did the chairs in case you want a visual reminder in your home. I traced the chair bottoms and drew the shape that I wanted to cut out of wood for a solid new bottom to the chairs. Then I cut a new base with a jigsaw and sanded the edges.

For a neutral look I chose to use drop cloth fabric. It’s so inexpensive and I love the soft, lived in feel of it. My mom helped recover the bottoms, we used layers of foam and batting for a full, smooth finish. You will want to wrap a thin batting around the wood so the edges are soft and don’t just look like covered wood!

I highly recommend an electric staple gun, they work so much better than a hand powered one. Try to make the fabric smooth in the front, back and sides and gather the material on the corners, it will look much neater this way. Work your way around the chair base and cut away excess fabric once stapled. I used this to recondition the wood part of the chairs. It is like a miracle in a bottle. Seriously good stuff! (supply list below)

Secure your base to the seat with L brackets or drill through the bottom of the chair into your new wood bottom. Every chair is unique and different so you will have to adjust to the chair you have, but using a common fabric across chairs will really keep them tied together!

Cane Chair Makeover Supply List

Wood Restore 

Drop Cloth

Staple Gun

Jigsaw

Batting