How to: Recover a Dining Chair

None of my dining chairs match.  They have all been salvaged from (usually) a trash heap in front of someone else's yard.  I took four very different chairs and using vivid paint colors and some oilcloth turned them into a bright and fun dining set.  Here's what I did:
Pick your chairs.  They need to be sturdy, but other than that you can work with almost anything.
For wooden chairs, sand them lightly,
 Next, wipe all of them down with a wet cloth and allow to dry completely.
 For metal chairs I use spray paint, and for wooden ones I used acrylic craft paint.  It's super cheap at any craft supply store, and comes in a huge variety of colors. I chose four different colors, but obviously you can have a more matched look by using the same color.
Next apply a couple of coats of polyurethane to protect them.
For the seats, I removed them and covered them in oilcloth which I found by the yard at Casa Ramirez on 19th in the Houston Heights.  I did not remove the original covering except in one case, where it was badly torn and would not have laid smooth under the oilcloth.  It's pretty easy to recover the seats if you take a look at them.  Some of them require a screwdriver, some a hammer, and some just pop out.  Fiddle with it long enough and you'll get it.  Fold the oilcloth tightly over the seat and secure with tacks on the bottom of the seat, and replace it.

Voila!

New life to old chairs.