A Sunny Chair Makeover

~Before we dive into our makeover today I just want to take a moment to remember those who lost their lives and were affected by the events on 9/11~

So I lost my first Fantasy Football Game. I thought that maybe I could make a come back in Monday night's games but alas it was not to be. Oh well, try again this weekend! And do you know what day it is?

That commercial cracks me up!

Anyway- let's get to the subject at hand here. Today I wanted to share with you a chair makeover that I had finished up last week. Remember these two sad guys? 

I bought them for super cheap because one had a broken leg. (See how I fixed it here)

After that was taken care of it was time for painting. I've been wanting to try chalk paint for a while now and thought this was a good opportunity to see what the fuss is all about. Using a recipe I found online I went the plaster paris route. Which included mixing plaster of paris with water:

Then adding my paint (I used Pantone Chamomeille) 

I love how thick and creamy it is!

Overall my first chalk paint experience was a good one. I can see why everyone loves this type of paint! A little bit of paint goes a long way, it goes on smooth, and not a lot of prep work is required.

Ta-Daaaa!!!

I used some leftover Dwell fabric from my slipcovered chair, I thought the modern grey print worked well to contrast with the traditional shape of the chairs and the soft yellow paint. And the chalk paint was great at getting just the right amount of chippy-ness when I sanded the details.

To seal the paint I didn't go the traditional soft wax method as is used in most chalk paint applications. Instead I went with a non-gloss sealant. The chairs are for sale and I wanted to be sure they are super durable.

I like how they turned out, a far cry from where they started! And I'm a new chalk paint enthusiast. 

Slipcover How To

Hi Everyone! Thank you for all the kind comments you been sending on the chair slipcover. Sorry this post is late, I was out of town for a few days and haven't been near a computer!

I'm back home now and will finally share with you how I made the slipcover for my chair. It all started with this post from Apartment Therapy on slipcovering a reading chair. The chair was similar to mine and it gave me inspiration to finally do something about my "elephant in the corner".

Before

After



I did some reseach on slipcovering and read a few articles:

The Nester on her slipcover project

And I did a lot of searching for fabric. Some of you have asked where I found such a deal on the Dwell fabric. I found it on this website: http://www.onlinefabricstore.net/ in case you wanted to get some of your own. Someone also asked if the fabric is durable. It's an upholster grade fabric and is made of cotton. I haven't had it that long so I'm hoping it lasts a long time and continues to look good. I'll probably spray some Scotch Guard on it to protect it from stains. I'll give you any updates as they come!

Ok, enough talk down to business!
I started with some old sheets I bought at Goodwill. I wanted to make a templates to use for cutting out my nice fabric. Since I'm a first time slipcover-er I didn't want to waste precious fabric with mess ups.

I cut large rectangles out, then fit them snuggly around each section of the chair, pinning as I went. I wanted the original shape of the chair to show through so I pinned as closely as I could around the edges.

After I did that I trimmed any extra fabric edges to get about a 1.5" seam allowance I would to for my templates. I marked the templates so I would remember where each one was supposed to go.

I then used my templates to cut my Dwell fabric out. Using the sheet templates allowed me to line up the pattern how I wanted.

Then I repinned my new fabric templates inside out on my chair to get my slipcover shape.

Then sewed the whole thing up. It was a little cumbersome with all the fabric laying everywhere but I was afraid to unpin anything and loose my shape.

After I sewed it all up I refitted it on the chair to see how it fit. I pulled out a few seams that could use some refitting and stitched up a few spots that I had trouble getting the first time around.


The arm for example I pinned again and resewed.

Then is was time for the cushion, I thought that since I have done a few pillows in the past this would be easy. But it was time consuming and hard.

I traced the shape of the cushion onto the fabric leaving a 1.5" seam allowance.

To get the fabric allowance for the middle cushion thickness I used a piece of string and ran it all along the edge. Then laid it out on the fabric, measured a few inches on either side, and cut it out.


The harded part was sewing along the T-Shape of the cushion. Other than that it wasn't bad.


I then pinned the fabric around my cushion in the same fashion as I did the chair, leaving an opening in the back.

Once I finally finished sewing (I've never sewed this much in my whole life!) I got to work on the bottom. First I cut off the outdated skirt.

Originally I was going to staple the fabric to the underside of the chair to give it a more upholstered feel. But in the end I just used pins to adhere it so I can take the slipcover off whenever it needs cleaning.

Slipcover before skirt tucked under

Though the pictures don't show it I ended up sewing a piece for underneath the cushion using some leftover sheet fabric.

Then I was all done!

I hope this has been helpful and gives anyone who was thinking of trying this themselves some courage. You can do it!

Read more at http://diyshowoff.com/2013/08/15/before-and-after-diy-contest/#DlHqDqOhFOFmE5zd.99