Two Dollar Chair

Well, here it is.

 We were heading out to dinner one evening, and happened on an almost over garage sale. My husband and I jumped out, (against our children's wishes), and took a look. We saw this chair, and  I think it was marked down from $10 to $5. My husband and I looked at it, and the woman came up to us and said we could have it for $2. SOLD! Now, it looked pretty rough, but we could see it's potential.

The fabric was, as you can see, really worn out, and the arms were beyond filthy. I ripped the trim and nails from around the arms, to get rid of some of the yuck. 

Then I draped a blanket over it and there it sat, just like that for well over a year. Funny how after awhile you just get used to something, even if you don't like it. I couldn't decide on a fabric or color to recover it, so, it waited.

Then, when I put the chevron fabric on my wing back chair, I was inspired to finally do something with this chair. So, we un-upholstered it. It is the not fun part of upholstery, but not only to you get the yucky fabric off, you get patterns for your new pieces. 

You start at the bottom, taking it off piece by piece, and take a lot of pictures and remember the order that they came off. They will go back on in reverse order. This chair had 2 layers of cotton and horse hair on the seat, which I replaced with foam and dacron batting. It also had a major spring issue too, which required retying and new metal straps. Lucky I have an amazingly handy hubby, who loves to do that part for me.

This is what the bottom looked like after we took the black fabric cover off.

This is what it looked like after we took the straps and burlap off. It needed some major work. It was kind of wobbly too, and after removing the fabric and batting, we found the frame had a crack along the top. Again my hubby glued and screwed all the joints to make it sturdy again. 

After all that, we were ready to start putting it back together. I had found a fabric at Hobby Lobby that I liked, but it was a little pricey. That's probably why it sat for so long. But, with the 40% coupon, I decided it was my choice. I laid out all my removed pieces, figured yardage and went and bought fabric, gimp, foam, batting, staples and nail head trim. After I got the fabric home and started upholstering, I really fell in love with it. It's the coolest piece I have ever done.

It makes me happy every time I look at it!

The design on the fabric is shiny silver metallic. If you look in the cabinet to the right of the chair, the candlesticks are mercury glass I found at a garage sale last year. Perfect!

After

Before

It had great lines and the wood was in great shape, so it was worth the effort. I first just had gimp glued over the staples, but the nail trim really made it. 

One more shot of my new favorite!

Wing back Chair Before, After and After

Well, I'm going to try this blogging thing again.  New year, fresh layout. Also, new year, time to finish up those projects I started or purchased perhaps years ago with great ambition, but somehow they fell beside the way. I'm going to do my best to finish what I have started.

First off, I have a wing back chair I had made years ago. At the time all my living room furniture was a light pine finish. So... I wanted a chair with legs that matched, and at the time all I could find was dark stained legs. This was before craigs list and such, and I didn't have the common sense to buy a used chair and refinish the legs.  Duh, what was I thinking. Anywho, I had a chair made, finished the legs, and then had an upholsterer cover it with a lovely, (at the time!) navy, pink and green plaid.  I loved it, but some 20 years later, not so much.

So last fall I stained the legs a dark walnut, but it still wasn't working for me. Then the hubby and I recovered it in a green fabric to match our now living room colors. (Notice the before piano in a nice shade of aged orangeish pine!)

We lived with it like this for a year, and it was a definite improvement, but not really doing it for me. I wasn't really planning on ever upholstering  it again, as the front of those curved arms were a big pain. I figured I'd  

rather just sell it and start over with something else. 

But by chance I was at the fabric store one day looking for a gray chevron for a friend who wanted to recover a rocker for a baby room. Well... I found the most amazing chevron canvas prints, and they had one in green. I had to get a couple yards, just cuz I loved it.  It lay on the back of the couch for a couple weeks while I decided if I wanted pillows out of it. Then I got the bright idea of just recovering the cushion and back of the green wing back chair. Now, the greens don't match exactly, but I'm in love. Take a look!

 

I figured as long as I had to take the back off to recover the seat back, I might as well put the chevron on the back.  So now it looks cute from behind too!

Just one more picture, and then I have to get to my next project. Another chair we picked up at the end of a garage sale for $2.  It said $10, crossed off to $5, and when we looked interested the woman said we could have it for $2! Can't pass that up. Right now it's in pieces with springs hanging out of the bottom!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Mom & Dad's Chair

The story of this chair is long.  I'm pretty sure it started out it's life covered in a sort of vinyl, plastic like material.  My memory says it was a floral of browns and greens.  Anyhow, early on my parents recovered it in a blue nubby type material, and that is how I mainly remember it.

 Well, they replaced it a few years back, and of course I grabbed it.  It is small, and I thought it would fit great in a little girls room. It had a gathered skirt, that I pulled off right away.  At the time, my girl's room was pastel ginghams, so I made a slipcover to match.  I found a VHS tape at the library, with awesome directions, that I still use today.  I dug through old pictures, and scanned the only one I could find.

See it in the corner?  It was cute, and served it's purpose.  Then my girl wanted a big girl room, so we went with a Hawaiian theme. Bright pink and lime green, with a little orange and turquoise thrown in.  I'm hoping we've reached the digital age by now, and I can find a picture saved on CD.  Digging through old boxes of pictures is very time consuming.  It's also really sentimental.  Hurray, I found one!!

It was fun, and we loved it in her room.  But alas, she again outgrew her room style, and wanted shabby chic.  That is what it is now, and I will share lots of projects from her room later.  So the small chair ended up in the living room, with it's nasty blue fabric for a few years.  Finally, I had it and decided it was time to recover it.  We pulled the blue off, repaired springs and webbing, and added extra batting.

Found some fun fabric on clearance at Hobby Lobby.  Love the colors.

So, the nasty blue chair, lives again.  I planned it for the living room, but decided it just didn't feel right in there.  Then one day it dawned on me that it would be great in the corner of the kitchen, next to the slider.  Everyone always hangs out in the kitchen anyway, so it's perfect.  For now, at least.  The kitchen may have another makeover soon, if we can make up our mind.

This is where is it now, and we love it.  But nothing is forever.  See that red wall?  As soon as I wash the rest of my kitchen walls, that I took wallpaper off like a year ago or more, it will all get a fresh coat of paint. But that's a story for another day...

Thanks for stopping by!!

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The Living Room

I guess the idea to blog really began about a year and a half ago when teenage daughter decided she didn't care for my living room decor. (Secret: Neither did I) I told her to take out the stuff she didn't like. Well... she emptied the room.

And so it began!  It was like dominoes, start here and end up changing everything.  She thought it would be fun to redecorate without spending any money, and blog about our journey.  So the majority of our projects are craigslist freebies, repainted, reupholstered, repurposed or just changed out.

This is the couch we've had for years.  It is a high end Baker couch that my grandmother gave me years ago.  I had it reupholstered in the mauve stripe, but a few dog years later it was pretty grungy, so I slowly reupholstered most of it.  I still rather like it, but it was dated, and locked us into a style.  So, back it went to my aunt's house, and fortunately, my Craigslist addicted hubby found a sweet antique couch for free. 

It was sitting on a porch, and pretty stained up, but the style and wood were gorgeous.  So we stripped the fabric off it, and actually found horse hair inside.  I guess it's pretty old!! 

We found fabric, real similar to what was on it, on clearance at Field's.  (Never pay full price for anything!)  Taking a piece of upholstered furniture apart is a great way to learn how it's done.  You just put it back together in reverse order.  Also, an air stapler and 2 people make the job go way easier.  Don't even attempt it with a hand stapler!! Save the pieces you remove as approximate patterns for your new fabric, and take lots of pictures as your pulling it apart.  It's really not as bad as it seems, if your handy.  We really enjoyed doing it together.



The upholstered ottoman in the last picture is another redo.  I'll show you that project soon!