A Few Upholstery Before and Afters

Since I have been trying to get through with projects quickly lately to put them in the shop I have been forgetting to take a lot of process pictures- sorry to anyone who enjoys those! First up I wanted to share a chair I found and Craigslist and had high hopes for:

The fabric was blue and had a very office-y feel to to. I was in love with the chrome frame and curved back. I knew with the right fabric it would be a gem! So I set to work tearing the fabric off and stapling the new.

DIY Upholstered Headboard

Happy Belated Mothers Day to all Moms, soon to be Moms, Grandmothers, and Moms to four legged friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I celebrated by going on a date with the hubs Saturday night then spending family time Sunday hiking and grilling. We thankfully had nice weather all weekend.

And- is anyone else reeling from the season finale of Revenge? OMG!!! Declan dead? What was he doing in that building anyway? Nolan framed? Padima alive!? Aiden maybe dead? Emily finally tells Jack the truth! (And does he feel dumb for not realizing it earlier or what) I'm dying for next season already.

Anyway- I also spent some time finishing up the upholstered headboard for our bedroom! 

And Then There Were Two

Happy Monday Everyone! And Happy Veterans Day Weekend. Special shout out to all military members out there- especially my Hubs. Go Air Force!

Seriously- Thank you to all U.S. Military Members for all you do and the daily sacrifices that you make.

Today I want to share with you my finished reupholstered mid-century chairs. Woo Hoo! Yay for finally having a pair of matching, good looking, non upholstery falling off, chairs in our living room!

Orange You Glad I'm Finished?

I sure am! I can't believe that I haven't shared this with you yet. I finally finished upholstering my orange chair! 

Remember these guys? These orange chairs I've been carting around since we lived in San Antonio?

You may remember that I took an upholstery class here in Altus in order to learn how to recover these bad boys.

Orange Chair Upholster Update

Though I haven't said much about it I have been working diligently once a week on reupholstering one of my lovely orange chairs at my upholstery class.

Before

It has been quite an experience. I'm the youngest one in the class (and only pregnant one) everyone else is much older. They are mainly reupholstering seats in their classic cars or RV's. It's been pretty cool to meet and mingle with people I may not usually interact with. 

The tearing apart was the easiest part for me, all the sewing involved has caused me some hang ups. I didn't realize that my chairs would require so much sewing- I thought it would be mostly stapling... no such luck. We have 2 classes left and barring any unforeseen catastrophes I should finish my chair in time.

In the meantime here are some progress shots:

Bare Bones

Fabric Scrap Yard

Gazillion Staples

Putting it back together

Sewing Piping- Go Me!

Getting the arms ready

One thing I decided to do to update the chairs was change the style of the arm. They were very retro. I modernized them by adding a piece of wooden to straighten out the angle:

Before

After

This is the part that really got me- the front seat cover. I had to pull out my seams several times- it took me 2 whole classes to sew and resew and resew and resew... I just couldn't get it perfect! And little mess up or wrinkle showed big time. It was so frustrating- I had serious thoughts of giving up. Finally after many tries and a lot of hair pulling I got it looking pretty good. 

Now that the seat cover is all set all I have left is stapling the sides of the arms and back seat cover, and sewing (Lord Help Me!) the cushion.

Overall it's been a good experience- I've learned a lot and met some nice people. But I'm seriously debating when or if I should even tackle reupholstering my second orange chair myself. The good thing about the class is having an instructor there to help me, access to a air powered staple gun, and industrial sewing machines. 

Like I said- the whole sewing debacle really deflated my confidence. 

My choices are:

1. Attempt the task on my own- to just go for it!

2. To take a second class (and pay the extra money) to reupholster the second chair. My problem is that Tiny Falcon #2 will have made his appearance by then and I'm not sure how that's going to work out.

3. Pay someone to reupholster it for me. I feel like that's such a copout. I took a class I should be able to take on the project myself. I bought the chairs with the intention of doing it on my own. But one thing I've learned also is that reupholstering may not be my best talent. ;)

Have you ever had a project that caused you some serious headaches?

Reupholstered Cane Chair

Ok- I am so excited to share this chair makeover with you! It was truly a labor (a lot of labor!) of love but the end result is totally worth it.

(I hope you don't mind that I showed you the Ta Da!! first.)

I found the dilapidated chair at the Goodwill a while back. An older gentleman was sitting in it and I thought he wanted to buy it- but when I asked him he said that he was just lounging while his wife shopped. Score!

It was tagged for $15 but I haggled for and got it for $10 (every dollar counts!). It had some problems of course. Torn, dirty fabric and ripped cane. 

I knew it had potential because I had seen Mandi at Vintage Revivals save a similar chair a while back. So I set to work taking the chair apart, starting with the upholstery first and being careful not to tear it so I could use it later as a template for my new pieces. 

This chair had some serious staples in it. Whoever put it together did not want it taken apart. I had to pull out the pliers and flat head screwdriver to get them all out. It took FOREVER!

There were some casualties.

But I triumphed in the end!!

The next task was taking the cane apart. And if I thought the upholstery did not want to come off, I was not prepared for this cane. Seriously- it was a beast. Good thing I took it outside because if was incredibly messy as well.

And when times get tough it's nice to have someone around to "help" you out.

Once I FINALLY got the cane off it was time for spray paint. I choose to paint the frame a glossy white.

Then I webbing back on. I was lucky to find some white webbing at our local craft store (Walmart). For better instructions on this part check out Mandi's blog.

Once that was finished it was time for upholstery. I had some fabric leftover from my Slipcovered Lounge Chair project that I thought would be perfect for this chair. I used a similar technique from when I redid my dining chairs. I traced the original fabric scraps onto my new fabric, leaving about an inch extra around the edges. Then stretched the pieces and stapled them into place to secure them.

To finish it off I hot glued fabric trim around the edges to cover the staples.

Then finished!

This project was good practice for the other upholstery project I have been trying to build up confidence for. It was tough but the end result was worth the hard work.

Yay!! What's the toughest project you have tackled? Was it totally worth the end result?

Linking here

Help A Girl Out?

Hello Blog Friends! I'm sending a special shout out to you today! I need advice and you guys are the perfect people to ask~

I was previously working at a large architecture firm in Texas, and was hoping to continue working in a similar field up here. But there isn't much work to be had for a Interior Designer in our new small town in Oklahoma. 


So I'm thinking of venturing out into something I've never done before- selling of my future creations. There are some vintage/ antique stores in town where I can rent a booth and sell my wares. I've been hesitant about doing this- it's kind of nerve wracking. Will anyone buy what I have to sell? I'm not expecting to make a ton of money doing this, but will I be able to break even?

I already have a few things to help get me started.

The Cafe Chair I found.

Working on fixing this guy up

Scored this guy at the Goodwill for $10 and he is going to be fabulous!

Maybe making some variations of my Wine Cork Boards to sell

And thinking about recovering these guys with a less bold fabric.

So do you guys have any advice for a first time furniture seller? How do you decide what to price each piece? What in your experience sells the best; furniture, accessories? Any tips or tricks?

My other concern (besides not making any money back doing this..) is that I have some other projects around the house that I wanted to work on and I'm afraid they might suffer with my new venture. 

Any advice on balancing your work and play?

Furniture Road Kill

While driving around town the other day I saw this group of furniture sitting by a dumpster outside a self storage facility:

Obviously someone was cleaning out their storage locker and didn't see the potential these pieces have.

With a new coat of paint and some new upholstery this chair could be so cute!

When I first drove by there was a larger dresser that went with this side table, but by the time I had turned around another lady was loading it into her car. Apparently I was not the only one who saw treasure instead of trash on the side of the road that day. With some paint and cleaning this side table can look like new.

This table needs some work, possible a new top. But the legs and side detailing will make it worth it in the end.

The hubs hasn't noticed these finds yet, I stuck them in the back shed. I wonder what he'll think? Anyway I've got some work to do!!

Do you keep you eye out for Furniture Road Kill?