Vinyl is "In"

This weekend Matt and I finished re-covering our dining room chairs for the third time in 6 years.  The first time we did it we chose a pretty pale yellow fabric that matched our dining room and dishes.  Soon after Caleb started using these chairs on a regular basis for meals and art projects, the chairs were looking pretty gross. Granted, I am not a freak about swift clean ups after meals. (Who has time to scrub stains on chairs when the end of meal time is followed by a rush to the sink to wash sticky hands before they touch everything in the house and then a poopy diaper to change before it leaks, then trying to get leftover food put away before it spoils or before the kids get back into it, then getting the kids started on the next appropriate activity so that mom can finish eating her own lunch, and then, and then...?) Even so, this yellow fabric might have had a label that said it was "stain absorbant." 

Somewhere along the lines I was introduced to the concept of plastic seat protectors, but my gut feeling was that these protectors couldn't withstand the abuse of my little boys. Why spend $8 per cover per chair when the chairs would still get stained? And I also tried assigning the boys to use just one or two chairs, rather than rotate through ALL of them, but somehow that plan just didn't work.

When the chairs got so dirty that I was embarrassed for even FAMILY members to see the chairs when they visited, I knew it was time for a new seat cover.  The second time I chose a clearance fabric that seemed sturdy and was multicolored, and I hoped a bit stain resistant too. The plan was to use it for about 4 years until Avery was at the point where she could mostly be trusted to keep her food on the table or in her mouth, not on the chair. Then I could pick another fabric to be a long term keeper.

Turns out that second fabric wasn't all I hoped it would be. The stains looked a bit nicer on the new fabric, but they were definitely still stained before long. Oh, and right after I put on the second fabric we ended up moving and changing color schemes in the kitchen.

So, magic fabric #3 for these chairs is VINYL.  I've had it with regular fabrics, and I hardly care that our kitchen feels somewhat like Pizza Hut with our dark red vinyl covered seats. It was a cheap and easy fix, and I *think* it will last us a little while.  We'll see...

So there you have our dining room chairs story.  Consider it a "Learn from that Nut's mistake" opportunity for those of you who still have children in highchairs =)