Woodland Chair
I did something this weekend I've never done before. Something I've always wanted to do. I reupholstered a piece of furniture! I've had this one piece that I've wanted to re-cover for a year or more now, but after much research, I think it will have to be done by a professional. But now I was left with this itch to still do it! But to what? I've thought of every way possible for my first piece and just don't know if I can pull it off.
Then I was given a couple of chairs that I thought just had a few screws and staples to handle. Excellent, I'll just conquer those! I was totally wrong though. Cassie had come to Texas that weekend and I'd told her about a DIY possibility. She was pumped and brought her staple gun since I didn't have one. We were out and about and I picked up fabric that I loved and I knew I'd use. It was going to be great! But at the end of the day, Cassie and I were on the floor pulling as hard as we could in opposite directions and the seat wouldn't budge from the base. Fail. We lugged them out by my dumpster and someone had ganked them within the hour.
So now I had this fabric... A fantastic pattern of origami woodland creatures native to those I saw in Alaska! Mmm! I knew I would totally use it because I was so fond of it and it went really well with my decor. I was thinking about incorporating it into my bedding or a throw pillow... hmm. Then on Friday, I remembered that a co-worker had a chair he'd snagged for a makeover but didn't want anymore. It was one of the old chairs in my church's choir loft:
You can see the good shape and the potentially easy project this would probably be, right..? So I started at it. I began by unscrewing everything I could and then started removing the old staples. The maroon-ish fabric wasn't coming off as easily as I assumed it would, considering that it was disintegrating in certain areas. And the staples were breaking off in most places rather than coming out of the wood. Grr! Don't even get me started on the original foam:
Alright, alright, so I got it all off and wiped it clean. Baby's ready to paint!
I took her out to my back porch and spray painted the wood with a low gloss, black, outdoor furniture paint. I painted the hymnal side rack separately, to attach later. I wanted to maybe paint parts or not at all? But the wood was pretty banged up, so the choice to paint it all black was the right one.
Next was upholstering the separate piece that attached to the seat back. Initially, the only difficult part of this piece was lining up the fabric the way I wanted it. I wanted the wolf and the white bird to be as centered as possible, while still seeing the moose. In the end, I had to dig through the new fabric and find the holes in the back where the screws would go to re-attach it. Oi vey.
Below is a picture of the back and front. The back side needed a single piece of fabric to lay square since it would be partially visible. This was a bit of trial an error due to the fact that the staple line had to be in the right spot to be hidden under the wood it would attach to.
Next was the seat. I had purchased a few yards of plain , white cotton to wrap the seat first, get that secured good and tight, and also to mess with to plan out how I'd lay the main fabric.
I got the base down nicely. It was looking good and I was feeling good. But as I kept going I had to do all of these crazy folds and corners. So after many folds and temporary stapling, my Woodland chair was starting to work with me.
It took two days, some fabric, a staple gun, and some cuss words, but I had myself a new treasure. Here's the finished product:
I would love to tell you exactly how I did it and what type of corner fold I ended up using. But the fact of the matter is, I'm an illustrator. The only knowledge I had in my bank was present wrapping and a few DIY articles over the years. I seem to pull these projects off most of the time by messing with things as I go; trial and error. Here's what she looks like with a few Anthropologie catalogs in the side rack and some old art text books underneath. I'm pretty friggin' pleased:
Project Breakdown
Chair: Free
Fabric: white - 2 yds at $3.99; woodland - 2 yds at $7.99
Staple gun: $8.99
Staples: $2.89
Foam: Free (original)
Total: $35.84
Sarah
tah dah! i love it! that is such great fabric. and i love that the chair is from the old choir loft...i'm a little envious. such a neat way to redo it! great job - maybe you can come help when i tackle my chair later this fall! :)
Great paint and fabric choice! I can't believe that's the same chair.
Let me know when you're coming in town and I'll find a chair for you, I mean "us", to re-do ;)