Reupholstering Chairs: The Two Year Method

Tags

chairs, recycle, reupholstering furniture, reupolstery, upcycle

When we first moved to Ohio, I had just discovered Apartment Therapy and was giddy with the thought of getting to decorate my very first house. Fast forward two years, and I still don’t have a single piece of furniture in my living room, but that is beside the point. I spent hours scouring Craigslist in between house hunting trips. The only thing I turned up were two dated chairs. Thirty buckaroos and they were mine.

I started to rip down the powder blue faux velvet. I finished tearing up the first chair. I got halfway through the second chair. Then, as so many of my projects go, they were relegated to the “sewing room,” which is really just an extra room in the house where dreams go to die.

But, then my mom and grandmother came to town last month, and we got word that we were moving to Colorado. I knew that Nathan was going to draw the line at carting two chair frames across the country. I just HAD to save them. It was an act of chair-manatarianism. (Ba-dum, ch. I know. That wasn’t even clever in the least.)

Here is what they looked like before:

And look at Finny’s little, shaggy head! Oh, he was so little.

And this is what they look like now:

The second I get out the camera, Finn is all about making it a photo shoot to remember. He thinks he is being so cool. Are you gonna be the one to tell him he is a bit of a dork, or shall I?

I scored the Ikat fabric from the clearance bin at Joann Fabrics; $12.00 for six yards of it was sa-weet. Since two-thirds of the backs of the chairs were originally caning, I had to buy foam for them, but I just got two twin size mattress pads at Wal-Mart. The only other expenses were staples (over 1500 of them; holla!) and the cording for the piping along the edges. Grand total for this project was about $70.00. Spread that over two years and two chairs and you’ve got yourself a deal. Or something.

Here is a walk through of all the steps I took. I’ll be honest, the best way to knock this kind of project out is to pay really close attention when you are dismantling the thing. That, and this awesome tute on upholstery from Design Sponge. They did a way better job than I did, and I skipped a few steps in the name of being thrifty.

Oh, and apologies for the crappy setup here with the “gallery.” If anyone knows how to insert a gallery in WordPress without the captions showing; let me know.

: After all the staples were removed, I used extra fabric from my curtains to staple to the inside of the frame; this will be visible from the back of the chair. I had to get really close to the edge of the frame with the staples. That was a little tough.

: Once the backing fabric was all stapled in really nice and tight, I trimmed it even with the channel that ran along the edge of the chair.

: Time to add the foam! I doubled up a twin mattress topper and stapled that baby in; just the same as the blue fabric.

: …and trimmed it up the same way, too.

: Then, I followed suit with the ikat fabric; but this time I stapled the crap out of the edges. Oh… it is starting to come together!

: Now time for the seat. Unfortunately, the foam had aged to this really icky yellow and was visible through the ikat. First I covered it in plain white muslin so it wouldn’t show.

: In order to get the corners nice and perfect, I grabbed a wad of the fabric and PULLED really tight, then went to town with the staple gun. As a reward for my efforts, I skipped the gym that day. As I do every day.

: I cut strips of the ikat to wrap around cotton cording for the welting/piping that ran over the staples on the back of the chair. I popped on my zipper foot and zipped that welting out like a pro. Semi pro. Okay, amateur.

: Then I trimmed it up so the raw edges would fit in the channel…

: …and then smoshed the raw edges into the channel that had been filled with glue. I used heavy duty fabric glue; the nice ladies at Joann knew just the right stuff to use.

: To make sure the welting wouldn’t come free (or show the staples), I added an extra bead of glue around both sides of the welting.

: I stapled more welting under the edge of the seat to make the edges look a little more finished. Then I screwed the seat back into place.

And it only took me TWO YEARS.

Might I offer this little nugget of advice… Trying to use an electric staple gun while having an infant in your charge? Yeah… Not such an easy feat. Or such a good idea. I could have whipped these suckas out in half the time if I didn’t have to keep putting the staple gun down to remove a Hot Wheel car from Alice’s mouth. And I could never find a decent place to stop, and every time I did, I would pack it all up, unplug the gun and put everything up high so nobody would give Child and Family Services a reason to visit. Christ, it was a pain in the ass.

In the end, I’m pretty happy with them. Up close, they are a total hot mess, but I’m at peace with that. The dogs like to lounge on them and Finny loves to leap off them. Alice loved to gnaw on the legs. Living room furniture is supposed to be lived in, isn’t it?