This chair belonged to my great-grandmother. I remembered it sitting in her formal living room, but I don't remember it being in this bad of shape. After her estate sale, there was a lot of odd & end pieces that were left to go to Goodwill, and this chair was one of them.
At the time I was living in a 1 bedroom apartment and ended up with an entire storage building full of stuff for "when I bought a house". Now that I'm married and I've had a house for 4 years, it's time to start doing something with the remaining pieces! This chair has been in my guest room and I think that's where it should stay. I am beginning my guest room revamp with this chair. I had initially thought that I was going to go with just creme & white, but I decided that it needed a pop of color, so I decided on navy.
When we moved in, my husband & brother-in-law painted almost every room except the 2 bathrooms. After 4 years, we're rethinking our paint choices. We've painted our hall bath, and re-painted the living room, so now it's time for the guest room. I have to be really careful with this room, because it has to double as my craft storage.
One thing I do know, is I like the idea of having a desk in the guest room. Not only is it nice for guests to have a place to set up their laptops, etc, but it gives me a place to put my sewing machine, other than the kitchen table. This chair is going to remain my desk chair. Although, I am going to have to be more careful when I'm working with paints...I had to take some mineral spirits to some places on the wood that were somehow pink!
Here's how I did it...
Of course I chose a color that I didn't have in my fabric collection, so I had to make a trip to Hobby Lobby, (oh darn,) however I lucked out because duck cloth was 30% off! (Which is what I used, it's a little more sturdy than cotton & to me wears better.)
I also found some pretty decorative tacks that I thought would go well. They weren't as big as the original ones, but they were only $1.99 for 48. Which I didn't think I needed that many, but after a few attempts, I learned that they give you extras because you end up with some bent ones! Or at least that's my theory.
Here is what I used:
- 3/4 yard duck cloth (or as much fabric as you think you'll use)
- box of decorative furniture tacks (optional)
- staple gun & staples
- flat head screw drive (for prying up old staples)
- needle nose pliers (for removing staples)
- magnet (for collecting staples)
- hammer (for tapping in staples the rest of the way)
- scissors
- fabric glue
First I turned the chair over on my kitchen table and made an assessment. The chair bottom fabric was still in really good shape, so I decided to try and salvage it. I started prying up & removing the staples.
Plus, I found this really nifty tag!!! I e-mailed the pic to my great-aunt and she told me that my great-grandmother bought a majority of her furniture from this place because her brother worked there. She said if she had to guess the chair was at least 50 years old.
After I took off the black fabric the bottom had a wood frame, but was essentially cardboard with some fabric straps! I didn't feel like messing with all that, plus I figured it had held up through some pretty rough crafting, and 50+ years, it was good for a few more. I undid the "cushion tacks" which turned out to be basically fabric covered brads, and removed them all! There were also some decorative ones around the frame that turned out to be more tack like, so I removed them as well so I'd have a smooth surface to cover. I opted not to take off the fabric, for 1, I had an inkling that it was holding in the foam, and 2, I just didn't feel like it. Plus the fabric would be a good "base layer" vs batting.
Then I set it upright and laid my fabric choice over it.
I wasn't really feeling it with the wood tone, but the wood was in such good shape, I mean barely even a scratch, that I hated to paint it. So I sent some pics to my husband and friend and sat down with a cup of tea to mull it over. I decided to listen to my husband, and my better judgement and not to paint the wood.
After I decided continue, I laid my fabric out both directions to see which direction was going to make the best use of my fabric. Once I decided I turned it back over and started stapling around one side just to have enough to start to stretch over the front & back & start to staple. I left the back for last since there was probably going to be a fair amount of folding & tucking for the back.
Once I got to the legs, it got a little tricky, but not too bad. I just made a slit down the front, short of the end of the leg, and one each way to allow for a little ore flexibility. There isn't a sure fit way to do this, not that I've found anyway, it just takes a lot of "dry runs" and manipulating...and folding before you fabric glue & staple. (I had a piece of broken cardboard, so I decided to patch it with some duct tape. Not ideal, but it was 6 am & I was determined to finish!
After folding the raw cut edges under and finding a placement that I liked, I just did a little bead of fabric glue to seal it against the fabric & hold the fabric from fraying. Fabric glue is super durable. It's made to be washed & dry cleaned, so don't under estimate it's value & skip this step!
Then I started on the back after I had the sides and front done.
As I said before, not sure fit way to do it, just try to cut as much excess fabric out as possible, with out taking too much. You can always take more if you need it. Remember to fold under your cut edges. Fold and tuck to where you want it before stapling it underneath.
After I had everything stapled, I stapled the black fabric back over the bottom, nifty little tag still in tact!
I set it up, so I could determine if it looked alright, and it did, so I went on to inserting my decorative tacks. I bought this entire box of 48 for only $1.99 at Hobby Lobby...I thought 48 was too many, well, turns out, they throw a few extras in for when you bend them beyond salvaging. Which for me was about 10. I found that when putting them in, you have to lightly tap them until they take hold of the wood, then try to get them in with as few strokes as possible.
I didn't measure them out, I just kind of eyeballed them. I always get so tired by the end of the project and I'm ready for it just to be done. I didn't put the "tufts" back in the cushion. The duck cloth that I purchased wasn't wide enough for it. But I don't think that it suffered from lack of tufts one bit!
Tah-Dah!!!
My total cost for this project was $7! My fabric was on sale, and since I only needed 3/4 yard it was less than $5, then my decorative tacks were only $1.99! Talk about thrifty! Who would have thought that $7 and a few hours would make all the difference in the world in this chair! And to think my brother-in-law kept wanting me to let him burn it!
Recover, staple, glue!
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