PitterAndGlink: Personalize a Beach Chair with Vinyl + Free Cut File

This post is sponsored by Expressions Vinyl and contains affiliate links. Thanks for supporting Pitter & Glink! Hey, y'all! I'm so excited about today's post! Do you ever make something and get super happy because it turns out even better than you imagined? That's what happened with the project I'm sharing with you today. My friends at Expressions Vinyl gave me the challenge to create a project based on the idea of Summer Fun. Summer always make me think of the beach, so I decided to try to personalize a beach chair with vinyl, and, y'all, it worked! Today I'm showing you how to do it, and, as usual, I'm sharing the FREE hand-lettered cut file with you so that you can create your own.

To make this project even more fun, I used fluorescent vinyl in a rainbow of colors, and I threw in some glitter vinyl because, well, GLITTER. I feel like this chair just screams SUMMER! And other than trying to iron a chair (which is a bit awkward to say the least), this project was really easy. Let me show you how I did it.

You'll need a few supplies to get started personalizing a beach chair. I'm going to list what you'll need below using affiliate links. This means that if you decide to purchase something using one of my links, a small part of the purchase price will go toward helping support my blog at no extra charge to you. Thanks!

Supplies:

Beach Chair--Make sure the material it's made of can be ironed. Mine was made of polyester. (Although this chair is NOT the one I used, it's similar.)
Fluorescent EasyWeed Heat Transfer Vinyl--Yellow, Orange, Pink, Green, Raspberry
EasyWeed Heat Transfer Vinyl--Black
Glitter Heat Transfer Vinyl--Lemon Sugar
Silhouette Cameo
Weeding Tool
Iron
Multi-Use Paper

The first step to personalizing your beach chair is working on the design you're going to use to personalize your chair. Of course, I've created one for you to use (but you can use whatever you'd like). Download the FREE "Hello Sunshine" SVG File HERE. Download the FREE "Hello Sunshine" Silhouette Studio File HERE. I'm going to be showing you how to work with the design in Silhouette Studio, but I'm sure the Cricut process is similar enough that you could figure out how to complete the steps below in Cricut Design Space. So once you download the design, open it in Silhouette Studio.

You need to ungroup the two parts of the design using the ungroup tool at the bottom left of Silhouette Studio.

Then choose one part of the design and mirror it using the replicate tool. (You have to mirror when using HTV or your design will only look right when you're taking a selfie!)

Once the design is mirrored, use your Silhouette to cut it from heat transfer vinyl. Repeat the above steps for the other layer of the design.

If you're making the top layer of the design multiple colors like I did, you will need to ungroup the individual letters and cut them each from different color heat transfer vinyl. Once all your vinyl is cut, use a weeding tool to weed the extra vinyl from around the design.

Next it's time to iron. As I mentioned before, this is the trickiest part of the entire process. You'll have to figure out how best to get your chair onto your ironing board. I had to thread my ironing board through the back of the chair. The top bar of the chair made it really hard to get the chair back flat, so I think if I would have had a heat transfer pillow, that would have made the process a lot easier. But I worked with what I had and was able to get the first layer of heat transfer vinyl down. I didn't do a perfect job of it, but I think I could do better if I had to do it again.

Once the first layer of heat transfer vinyl is down, it's time to add the top layer. If you're using multiple colors like I did, having some multi-use paper to protect the bottom layer and different parts of the design comes in really handy!

Once you finish ironing the top layer of heat transfer vinyl, your personalized beach chair is finished! Or you can add a pretty DIY beaded tassel to enhance your design. (Let me know down in the comments if you want a tutorial for the beaded tassel!)

Because this is the first chair I've personalized with heat transfer vinyl, I can't tell you how well it will stand up to the wear and tear of normal use, but I would guess that it will do okay.

Even though this was my first attempt at personalizing a beach chair and it isn't perfect, I just adore this chair! It's my favorite project I've created in a while. I can't wait to have some summer fun in my new chair! Now that I've shown you my project, what's the strangest thing you've ever put vinyl on? Let me know in the comments. And if you need vinyl for your next Silhouette Cameo or Cricut project, make sure to head over the Expressions Vinyl to stock up!