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Friday, December 3, 2010

Re-Upholstery




I've always been pretty bold about tackling some home project -- even if I don't necessarily have the skill or know how! I'm a firm believer that you can teach yourself just about anything. There's always ways to learn how to do things; from others who have the skill, from books, and now from the internet. There's a U-Tube video on just about anything you want to know about.
I have re-upholstered several chairs in the past. It's not that easy to do and I'm certainly no expert. But when I found these chairs and footstool on Craig's List for $100.00, that was my first thought -- I could re-upholster them. I bought them, got them home and then started to think about how difficult it might be and the cost of upholstery fabric (it's not cheap). My search for fabric finally yielded the result of a purchase with coupons for about $10.00 per yard. I needed almost 14 yards to do the chairs and stool and I bought everything the store had of the fabric and it was only 12 yards. That was risky but I thought the stool could be done in a different fabric and color. It ended up that I didn't need that much so with the chairs done, there is still enough fabric left for the stool. Because of other changes in our living room, dining room and kitchen I'm decorating with black as an accent color. So the fabric had to have black in it. It also needed to be a sturdy enough fabric to withstand a lot of use. I really like what I found. It took me about 3 days to recover the chairs. The longest most tedious task was pulling all the staples out. It's hard to believe how many were in the chairs -- it had to be over a 1,000. My hands ached after a whole day of tearing the chairs apart. The original fabric was used to make a pattern for the new fabric. Putting it back together was fairly simple. I purchased an electric staple gun but after a day of use took it back. It was a 'piece of junk'. My husband went and bought a pneumatic staple gun for me to use. That was a dream and other than my being startled every time the air compressor ran, it worked so well. The work is not perfect and I learned much through the process. I reused the metal tack strips and would not do that again. I should have purchased new strips. These chairs go in one end of my dining room. I'll post pictures of the whole room with the Christmas decorations soon.

2 comments:

The Quilted Finish said...

You've done such a beautiful job on the dress. I was looking back through your posts and saw your gorgeous wholecloth quilt. Congratulations on your win at the quilt show! I love your design.

Unknown said...

It must be that time of the year for re-upholstery. I just finished a chair for my living room, along with window treatments. I'm with you on teaching yourself, if you want something bad enough, you will find a way to get it done. Great job and looking forward to the Christmas pics.