Days of Chalk and Chocolate - reupholster Days of Chalk and Chocolate: reupholster - All Post
Showing posts with label reupholster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reupholster. Show all posts

Your Favorite Posts! 2013 Top Ten Posts!

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2013 was a long, hard year. Granted, we are all healthy, safe, and comfortable and for that we are always grateful. But we tried to get lots of house projects done on a wee budget, I struggled as a stay-at-home mom, and, oh this and that, whine, whine, whine.
One of the bright spots for us was this blog and for me, personally, reaching out to YOU, friend. Connecting with you, enjoying your comments, appreciating your encouragement, and getting to know you is what drives me to continue blogging when I'm tired or burned out.
And so, in honor of my awesome readers, here are the posts that got the most action!





How to Reupholster a Chair Seat

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About 6 years ago I reupholstered a chair from a matching pair I received free from a colleague. It was a simple paint/apply seat fabric job using white paint and black and white graphic fabric. I loved how it turned out. I blogged about it here.   If you don't want to go back and read here is a synopsis:

What I started with:



And what I had after:



The fabric was getting tired and faded so I reupholstered the seat again this weekend. It is so easy and there are a million tutorials out there so I'll just go through mine quickly.

I had purchased two yards of this fabric at Christmas time.  It's by Waverly I think. I saw it in the store and had no idea what I would do with it but knew I loved it.  So this is what I used.



And now my chair looks like this:



Here's the story.

Flip the cushion and take off the old fabric.

I pretty much took every tool out of Jim's toolbox to accomplish this. Let's just say
 I did a very thorough stapling job when I put this fabric on.

Replace batting and foam if needed. I did not need to do this.

Use the fabric you took off as  your pattern for your new fabric.

As I was doing this Ellie snuck up and put this here. It was cute.
She has to be involved in everything.

Years ago Jim bought a staple gun that is used with a compressor.
It makes things SO easy!  Of course, a compressor doesn't have
to be this big. We do enjoy overkill over here.

Pull fabric taut and staple, staple, staple. Pretend you don't
care how many you'll have to pull out the next time you do this. Just staple and pull
your heart out!

I like to do 2 sides first before doing the corners.

I know some people say to wrap the corners like a package but I have never been able
to do that. I just pull and staple as neatly as possible. These are not my
best corners. But I kinda don't care because you won't see them
when the seat is back on the chair.

Dizzy yet?  Yeah, I get that the cane back and the fabric
make for a woozy feeling. I am going to sew up a simple gray pillow to put on the back.


The other thing we did yesterday was to pound down every popped nail on our deck. I'm planning on staining it soon to freshen it up too. Here's my man wielding his hammer.


Watcha up to this weekend?  Anything good to report?

Cheers!
Jenny



Free Chair Makeover

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I'm enjoying my vacation, thanks!  My 7 year old nephew beat me in miniature golf but that's cool, that's cool.   So I could share a bunch of pictures showing us all having so much fun but that would mean I would have to go get my camera, take that card out of it, put it in the computer, and do stuff. All that work sounds very unvacationlike so instead I am showing something I did a long time ago but that I'm proud of none-the-less.  And the best part is that the pictures are already uploaded so no work needed to be done to make this post.

 I received two chairs from a teacher friend of mine who was cleaning out her attic. They were the first things she'd purchased as a young bride and now, 40 years later, she was giving them to me.  We had just bought our first house and were too poor to buy anything really nice. We were so grateful!  Ok, I was so grateful. Jim wondered what they were doing in his new house.  He came to my side later. But first...

They were two chairs that looked like this:


Um...great! Thanks. I think.  What do I do with them?  I knew they were sturdy and I liked the details on the side and the caning on the backs. Hmmmm, thinking, thinking.  I know what the DIY bloggers are thinking looking at that picture. You're all thinking "Why was this so hard for her? Why didn't she just spray them heirloom white and recover them in a bold fabric? Duh. She's a teacher?"  Well guess what! 










Boo-ya!

and again



Later I added cream colored satin pleated pillows for the back but never did take that picture.  Maybe when my vacation is over and I'm back to doing things like standing up in a nonbeach place.

 Hope you are all having a beautiful start to the week!


Cheers!
Jenny