chair redo

Once I finished my DIY roman shade, next up on my crafty to do list was refinishing this chair icky old chair. I actually picked it up on the side of the road way back in the spring, but it took me a long time to decide on fabric... This was my first furniture redo involving upholstery, so I looked around at a bunch of tutorials, and then I just kind of had at it. Since the chair was free and looked quite terrible, I wasn't too worried about messing it up.

Before:

After:

I'm no expert in this, and you can find lots of great blogger tips and tutorials out there, but here was my general process (with links to the various tutorials that I found really helpful):

• First I cleaned up and sanded the chair. It looked like there was originally caning under the arms, with only bits and pieces remaining, so I had to clean those out too. I unscrewed the seat and ripped off the welting and fabric from the chair back, saving everything for reference when cutting my new fabric. And nearly got carpal tunnel from pulling all those staples. Definitely a blister...
• After priming, I painted the framewith some leftover paint from my bathroom vanity. These tips from Little Green Notebook were helpful for getting a nice coat. 
• And then it was time to tackle the cushions. I picked out this Waverly fabric from fabric.com - it was hard to know how much to order, but I guesstimated based on the cushion size and ordered extra so I could make cording.
• For the seat, I probably should have sewed to get the front corners just so, but I decided to fudge it a little and just staple the fabric into place. Stapling fabric around the curve was a bit tricky, but the back part of the seat isn't visible when it's in place, so I could hide any folds back there.
• Then I made a new back with some batting (since the original was tufted, so the old cushion didn't work so well any more) and stapled into place (Little Green Notebook tips here). I cut off the excess and then hid the staples with double-cord welting.
• I made the welting following Little Green Notebook's instructions here (also referenced Centsational Girl's post here) and then glued it on. 

It could be a little more professional looking, but it was my first chair - and a really cheap project (only had to buy fabric) - so I'm pretty pleased with the new chair in the corner of my bedroom. Now just need to hang the curtains and art, and I'm pretty much done with the room as envisioned on my mood board!

 

 

Sharing here.