Yay!!!! I did it....I finally finished my very first upholstery job on my french chair. Would I do it again? I have too, I still have it's ugly sister and the grain sack fabric I purchased is on its way. It was a long process and I ran into lots of surprises on this chair. Here's where it all started.
Here's my assistant. I think she has decided this is her chair, with out without the seat. While I was taking the chair apart this is what I found. Also, each of the arms had crumbled packed, red clay. I had to thoroughly vacuum everything out. I did remove the straw and the batting material. It was coming off in pieces just from handling it.
I finished cutting the material, using the original fabric on the chair as my guide. These were my tools. I purchased the tacks that come on a roll and a special hammer to nail them in. The hammer was around $15 and the rolls (I purchased 2) were expensive,(I used a 50% off coupon) and as I later found out, not necessary. More about that down below. This part of the project was my least favorite. I found it very difficult to get most of the tacks in straight. Even though it didn't look perfect (I had NO expectations of that), I was feeling confident about how it was turning out.
The brassiness was bothering me, so I took my rub and buff and hand painted each one to tone it down. You can see the difference in the picture down below.
Again here is the brassiness. It just stood out even though I am using gold accents in my bedroom.
Once it was completed, I lived with it for about a week, and I just wasn't falling in love with it.
I am a faithful reader of Miss Mustard Seed. If you haven't read her blog, you should definitely check it out. Just when you think she is "done" with a space and it looks amazing, she goes and changes things up to look even better. Plus I have a weak spot for ironstone and she does too. It was destiny that right around this same time her post on her slipcovered chair came out. I fell in love with the french gimp she used. I checked online and found something very similar at Joann's, unfortunately the day I was there, they had NONE left in the color I needed. Fate intervened once again, because I fell in love with a beige trim with pink dots. I bought all they had at a price of $3.49 a yard. I ended up using approx. 9 yards and still have a couple left over for other projects. I really wasn't sure how much I would need, and I just wanted to avoid making a second trip and also possibly running into an issue of it being out of stock.
Off went the roll of upholstery tacks. This wasn't as painful as pulling off individual tacks, but still a little time consuming. I used my glue gun, and went through a lot of glue sticks to attach the trim. But in the end, I now have a chair that I LOVE.
I've created my own little reading nook in my bedroom.
I have a much better understanding now as to why it can be pricey to have a chair covered. It can be time consuming and difficult when removing tacks. Attaching the actual fabric doesn't take as long but working around any curves can be tricky.
As you can see my rugs from Furbish studios, came in and I love the pattern and colors. I did purchase 2 to make them a little longer, much like a runner. My needle point pillow came from Ebay, and the small wooden, milking stool was purchased from the Sundance catalog a long time ago. If you read my post here, then you will recognize my little $2 owl. I noticed underneath the owl it had a "Jonathan Adler" label. After doing a little research via Google, I found the same owl as mine here. Still being sold online for $88. Super score for me. Here's a better picture of this cute little owl.
It now rests on top of my own copy of Miss Mustard Seed's book. And no, I haven't been paid for any of the sites or businesses I've mentioned. These are people or items that I have found on my own, and love for my own home.
Leave me a comment below and let me know if you think the fabric trim was a much better choice?
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