I posted this ugly, dusty ripped chair a few weeks ago.  I scrubbed it down with some water to get the chunks off.  Ripped out the seat - which to my dismay was a piece of rusted out metal sheet with leather over it.  (Good thing my Tetanus shot was up-to-date) -  That was a bugger to get out!    Grabbed my new favorite paint - Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Old White and a dry chip brush and went to town!  I basically dry brushed this whole chair.  Don't get too much paint on the brush, just enough to get the paint on the tips of the bristles.  Use long light sweeps to get the paint on.  You want to see the background through the paint.
One think I learned from Annie Sloan's book was to always start painting your piece upside down so you don't miss anything.  It also helps you not bugger up your top that you already painted.
To do the seat took a little creativity because the metal was so thin.  There was barely 1/8" depth to work with......I had some jute webbing left over from another project so I strung that across the opening to create the "seat" strength, I then took a thin piece of soft foam hot glued to a piece of thin cardboard.  Then took the material and hot glued that onto the foam/cardboard creation and then used black upholstery tacks to nail the seat down.  I think it turned out pretty good considering I had no idea was I was doing!!