Zach built me a table. This is his out-of-jail-free every time we argue now... Anyway, this table is eight foot long and seats ten. He built a bench for one side, but we needed seating for the other six people. Insert inspiration: the Weasley family table, a la Harry Potter.
Take a break and watch some HP, I won't tell.
I love those mix-matched chairs! They're so cozy and boho and homey. Who doesn't want to live in the Weasley house?! (Answer: Draco)
So the search was on. I don't know if you have this/are aware, but in lieu of Craigslist, our town has a few different Facebook pages that do basically the same thing but are more local and less creepy. I found five chairs, each under $10 from a two different people on our "garage sale" site. Score! I hauled them home and let them "rest" in our basement for most of the summer - I'm lazy.
This weekend, Zach said he didn't want them in his workshop anymore I finally decided to reupholtser them. I'm not nearly as cool as Molly, so I needed them to have something to tie them together - fabric. I picked up six yards of fabric and six yards of a heavy, batting-like fabric (I can't remember what it was called!). I ended up only using three of each kind.
I've never upholstered chairs, but here's my tutorial anyway.
Here's my chair before. Just flip it upside-down and unscrew the seat from the chair. Dearest Husband did this before for me.
Kind of fun to see how it was done before. Somebody must've like lots staples.
I decided I didn't want to rip apart all the old seats. Almost all of them were in good shape and still had good "cush", so I decided to cover it with this white, heavy fabric instead to keep any patterns or color from showing through. I did have to take apart one that was in bad shape, but I still followed the same basic pattern. I just laid the seat face down on the fabric and freehand cut around it, making sure I had enough to cover the edges.
Next, I pulled it tight and used my staple gun to secure it.
I then pulled and stapled the opposite side.
I did the same thing on the other side, making sure the corners looked like this. I think it looks like an ear.
This is how all four "ears" look.
Take some time on this step to carefully fold the corners so you have neat folds. I also need a manicure.
Once you like the corners, secure them with staples. Because I still have the old fabric underneath the staples don't want to hit the wood. If you apply extra pressure to the gun with the heel of your hand, the staples will almost always hit wood.
Here's all the corners stapled down, but it's pretty messy, So I trimmed it.
Trimmed!
Here's what it looks like with the first layer finished - nice and tight with clean corners. I know they're not professional quality, but they look good to me! Next, repeat the same steps with the patterned fabric.
Tah-da! finished chair. Looks so much nicer than before. I've been in love with this fabric for a long time, so I'm glad I found something to use it for!
And of course, Lady Lunatic wanted a picture too. Crazy eyes!
I have a thing for side-by-side before and afters.
Below are a few shots of the chairs in place. I love the way they look and the fabric that ties them together. We even had an extra, so I put it in the corner. My favorite is the yellow mid-century chair and the rose-backed one is Zach's favorite. Which do you like best?
