How to have Decent Furniture with a House Full of Boys

This is our breakfast table. From a distance it looks pretty good.

 But the closer you get, the easier it is to tell that a house full of boys use this table and it's {unfortunately} cream colored chairs on a daily basis.

 Now don't get me wrong, these chair started out a beautiful cream color and they stayed that way for a few years in my {rarely used except for crafting} dining room. When we finally outgrew our 4 seater table, the logical thing to do was to move this bigger table into the breakfast nook for everyday use....the only problem was those beautiful cream colored chairs. We tried being careful, we tried cleaners, we tried scrubbing...nothing was going to keep those chairs clean! The only solution was to recover....using something a little more durable than cream colored fabric!

I considered using a vinyl type fabric so that spills would clean up easy, but who wants to eat dinner on a chair that squeaks like Marie Barone's couch:) That is where this bolt of fabric comes in. I picked it up at Hancock Fabric on clearance for $6 a yard...and it is outdoor material! I figured outdoor material would repel stains and clean up easier than normal fabric, plus it was so cheap that I got a few extra yards so I can recover them again if we have any major oops!

To recover your chairs, simply remove the seat from your chair. Cut out a piece of fabric big enough to cover the front of the seat and wrap around the sides.

Use a staple gun to attach the fabric to the underside of the seat and then cut away any extra fabric.

Covering up those stained cream cushions made our chairs seem like they were brand new...now we are just waiting for our first spill to test out our newly recovered chairs!

And just for fun here is a before and after....though I almost considered labelling them the opposite because the first one is "after kids have been here" and the second one is "before kids have been here":)

So how can you have decent furniture with a house full of boys....cover up their stains and have an extra stash of fabric just in case they when they inevitable make more!