Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Have a seat...


I found this Louis-style chair at The Rink a couple months ago. I bought it knowing it could be amazing after a little bit of work was put into it.

This project took me a lot longer than expected. The actual work was pretty uncomplicated, but since I had never worked with a chair like this, I psyched myself out every time I looked at it!

I removed the old ugly fabric within the first few days of bringing it home. That didn't take too long - just a lot of muscle. I made sure when I was removing the old fabric, that I was careful to keep all the pieces in tact and that I remembered how it was attached in the first place. This is probably the most important step in reupholstering furniture. The old fabric serves as a template for the new fabric.

I was super lucky that the batting was in great shape and that I didn't have to replace it. This was my first time working with a chair of this type - The only tutorial I could find online was this one at PoeticHome and just looking at the photos for replacing the stuffing made me want to vomit!

I had considered painting the wood a bright fun color like Jenny did over at Little Green Notebook, but I decided to go with my gut and stain it instead.

After having sat in my office for forever, naked (the chair, not me), I moved the it to the garage, where it sat. And sat. And who knows how much more time passed before I stopped procrastinating and actually started working on it again. My biggest issue was not so much procrastination, but the fact that I REALLY like the chair and I didn't want to screw it up!



Stripping the old paint took a few days... those little grooves are no fun to get paint out of!

I stained the wood and finished with a coat of polyurethane.

I finally found a print that I liked, so I cut pieces of fabric using the old fabric as templates, adding a couple inches around the edges so the print with line up the way I liked. Stapling the new fabric on was one of the easiest steps of the entire project. There was a little edge of wood where the wood trim met the batting - this is where the staples went. The staples were then hidden by hot glueing the piping around the edge.





I love how the chair turned out!

What do you think?

Have you had any projects that are WAY easier than you thought they would be?



6 comments:

Beth said...

Looks great! Yea no I don't do things myself.

Unknown said...

Wow. That is really impressive. I don't know much about fabric, but your fabric is awesome. Nicely done.

Unknown said...

That turned out really well! Recently, my mom gave me a little side table that she's had ever since I can remember. I was going to strip all the layers (and layers) of paint and stain it, but once I got into the process of stripping it, I started really liking the look of the chipped pieces showing through each other. Halfway through the project, I just stopped, and left it how it was. It's on of my favorites now!

Jason and Phyllis said...

WOW!!! I'm impressed sister!!! I might have to put you to work! Love the fabric!

{Amanda} said...

This is fantastic! {Saw your post on The Little Green Notebook} How did you make the piping?!

* http://donandamanda.blogspot.com *

Abby said...

Amanda -

I bought the piping material from a local fabric store. I cut the patterned material into strips, folded the strips in half and sewed them. Then I turned the material inside out into a tube and fed the piping through.

When I put the piping on the chair again (since I reupholstered it again) I might take photos and put it into a blog post....