Furniture Flip | Italian Caned Chairs

This is a furniture flip you won’t believe! A pair of caned chairs with damaged caning was no problem to flip! Let me show you how we did it!

dark, dingy, damaged

First, let me show you how these chairs first appeared to me at an auction. Dark, dingy, and damaged.

You know, your typical find at an auction. We LOVE finding pieces like this to do a furniture flip on!!

Pair of Caned chairs, one painted and one in original condition

whoa, nelly…..

Let me back up a bit and remind you of the steps it took to get to this point of the furniture flip!

First, we prepped, cleaned, and repaired the chairs:

Repairing Furniture | Italian Caned Chairs

Then we did a little makeover using fabric:

Furniture Makeover Ideas | Italian Caned Chairs

the reveal

And that leads us to where we are now, The Reveal. We all love a good reveal and believe me, this furniture flip does not disappoint!

milk paint & grain sack

The milk paint finish on this pair in Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint “Artissimo” is perfection in my opinion!

And the grain sack style fabric with the subtle blue stripe matches it perfectly, don’t you think?

Dark blue can be such a neutral in many homes. In fact, it’s a color I want to start to incorporate into our home.

Stay tuned for that, I am also hoping to share more of our home and how we use the vintage farmhouse style in our decor.

Remember when we distressed the milk paint finish? It really helps to bring out the details of the furniture!

You can also see the different tones of the paint. See the darker and lighter areas? Just another reason to love milk paint!

upholstery & cushion covers

The backs of the chairs are upholstered but I made removable and washable seat cushions for the chairs. The fact that the covers can be removed and washed will make these chairs even more desirable for the lucky buyer!

Besides, I couldn’t resist buying this vintage-style zipper tape!

The light-colored fabric helps to show off the caning, don’t you think?

contrasting details

And the seats have the same look even though the seat is actually a painted piece of wood. We wanted to add some stability to the old caning so we added plywood to the underside of the chair seats.

Even though it is in excellent condition, we felt it was best to make the seats more durable. We want these chairs to last for years to come!

Don’t you love the double cording on the back of the chairs?? It really is a great way to show off the curvy lines of these Italian-made chairs!

made in Italy!

Yes, I just said, “Italian made!!” Believe me, I just about came out of my seat when I saw this stamp on the bottom of the chairs!! “Made in Italy” is stamped on the underside of each chair. The letters are about 1″ tall and very bold.

I love details like this so much!!

furniture flip

This furniture flip was a great project to work on. It included a little bit of everything:

  • easy repairs
  • cleaning and prepping
  • painting
  • upholstery
  • sewing

Just a few of my favorite things to do!

Did you enjoy this tutorial? Let me know in the comments! I would love to hear from you!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me and ask! I would love to help you with your own furniture flip project!

Thanks for joining us here on the blog! We love sharing our tutorials with you!

You can see Part One and Part Two in these two posts:

Join us on Instagram and Facebook too! We share some behind the scenes of many of our projects! Pin any image you see as a future reference to your furniture makeover boards on Pinterest – you never know when you might need help with your next furniture flip!

graphic showing pair of caned chairs, one painted and one not yet painted

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14 Comments

  1. What a beautiful transformation! I especially love the cording on the back of the chairs. It is such a pretty detail. I also love working with MMSMP! Thanks for sharing this project. Well done!

    1. Cynthia Gayle says:

      Thanks Kim! I haven’t worked with double cording in years but I decided to give it a go and I like the results too!

  2. Wow these chairs are absolutely gorgeous!!! Love the color of the chair and the fabric too:)

    1. Cynthia Gayle says:

      Thank you Maria! Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Artissimo is one of my faves! Thanks for stopping by!

  3. Another great furniture flip Cindy! These Italian cane chairs are so pretty and I’m excited to feature your post this week at the Tuesday Turn About Link Party!

    1. Cynthia Gayle says:

      Omgoodness thank you so much Michelle!! They were a fun project!!

  4. Cindy,
    These turned out great. See you feature on Wednesday’s Charming Homes & Garden Link Party.

    1. Cynthia Gayle says:

      Omgoodness thanks so much Rachel!!

  5. These chairs are stunning. Love the color and the fabric. You’re so talented.

    Cindy

    1. Cynthia Gayle says:

      That’s so sweet of you to say Cindy! Thanks for stopping by!

  6. Cindy, a creative and lovely reinvention! Pinned for future reference!

    1. Cynthia Gayle says:

      Thanks so much Debbee!!

  7. Patti Donophan says:

    Cindy, I just received your newsletter and was able to read all three posts about these chairs. They are stunning! I love the fabric you chose and how you were able to make the cording around the back so beautiful! That ‘twist’ (best way for me to describe it) in the fabric for the cording makes such a statement and really make the chairs standout. You all did a great job; whoever purchases these chairs will have a real find!

    1. Cynthia Gayle says:

      The cording is a double welt. I think that was my first time making it. Now I’m in love with it!! Thanks for stopping by Patti!