upholstery | Planting Sequoias

Why yes, I am milking this project for all it’s worth… You can see part 1 here and part 1.5 here. I skipped sharing part 2 and estimate that this is about part 2.5.

Here’s where we left off:

I got to this point by following this great tutorial. And since Aimee posted such a great tutorial, I don’t have to completely reinvent the wheel. I’ll just share the most confusing parts and complicate things further. 🙂

So. You get your fabric–about 2 yards worth–and cut things in the right shape. And then you staple until you feel like your fingers will fall off. Here’s how you fold it and staple it to the back to make the legs look nice and finished.

(Skipping a bunch of crazy pictures/explanations here…trust me, they wouldn’t help clarify things.)
Let’s just jump to the back of the back of the chair. This was the most fun and the most gratifying part to work on.

Here’s how I attached the back flap of the back of the chair using cardboard from a cereal box. It made a super nice clean line when you flip the fabric back over it. Smart, huh? Wish I had thought of it.

This is how the chair is looking now. Pretty classy, right? And yet…

…my chair has a secret. Business in the front, party in the back.

While the mullet look might be “in” in some circles, the look is not welcome in our home. Oh, don’t get me wrong–I’m fine with it, but Ken objects. He likes things to look spiffy and does not approve of mullets. My apologies to all of my friends that have mullets (which is many, duh).

I still have to figure out how to affix that back fabric to the chair itself–either by blind stitching it by hand or by purchasing some upholstery strips. I think I’m also going to attempt some nailhead trim around the edges of the chair to hide some imperfections in my upholstery job. Unless it costs an arm and a leg, in which case cheapness will probably win. That’s how it goes around here.

Anyone else embracing the mullet look in your home’s decor?

This is the story of a chair.

This chair lived a long, full life (I presume).

Unfortunately, someone thought that this chair had outrun its usefulness and had tossed it atop our apartment dumpster.

Perhaps they discarded this guy because of the multiple tears and general disintegration of the fake leather. Or perhaps the were bothered by the seams that were splitting left and right. Or maybe the got sick of the scratched up wood legs.

I know. I can’t see it either. OF COURSE I had to get that chair out of said dumpster.

So I did, much to Ken’s chagrin (duh; the man rather dislikes when I do stuff like this). But this was back in the day before we were married…so somehow, that makes it better. Right?

Since my dramatic rescue of this chair, it has lived in our garage gathering dust and acting as a pretty good shelf for our Christmas decorations. But the time came for it’s second life, so I hauled it out and dusted it off and did this.

It was a messy, tricky, tetanus-inducing business. There were rusty staples EVERYWHERE in this chair. My poor fingers will never be the same.

Through the power of the internet, this multiple hour process is nicely reduced to 4 pictures. Here’s what all of my hard work ended with:

It’s a beauty, right? Just the look I was going for.

Restoration Hardware has a pretty, um, unique line of furniture called the “Deconstructed Uphostery Collection” where they make furniture but leave off the final layer of fabric. On purpose.

Source

Can you see the vision I had yet? Pretty sure I basically nailed this one.

Except that I’m not Restoration Hardware and am absolutely not cool enough (nor do I have enough confidence) to pull off the deconstructed upholstery look. Let’s not even get into what Ken would say had I actually voiced aloud my plans.

Needless to say, I am now scouring the fabric stores around me for the perfect print (or two) that doesn’t break the bank. Home decor fabric is expensive, unless you’re willing to sacrifice your morals and go with something on clearance like this.