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?

Road Kill Rescue 3: Coffee Table

I'm back once again with the final installment from my "Road Kill" rescue series. As a reminder I found this group of furniture next to a dumpster outside a storage facility:

I mean, come on; who would through this stuff away right? It's like they say- one person's trash is another person's treasure.I already transformed the first two pieces, the Cafe Chair and Small Dresser. Now it was the Coffee Table's turn.

This thing needed some help. The legs were loose, the plywood top was splitting and pretty much ruined, and it was completely dirty. This guy was the worst off of the bunch and I could actually understand why someone threw it away. 

My initial thought was to remove the top and fashion a new one; build a frame with a mirror inside, make a nice wood top like my coffee tables, ect. But then I got to thinking- maybe this coffee table didn't need to be a coffee table anymore. It's lived out it's coffee table life of wet drink rings and food spills and now it was ready to become something else..... like a bench!

Yep, I decided that instead of going through a ton of work to make a whole new top I would just reupholster the existing one and give this piece of furniture a whole new purpose. After cleaning the table up and securing the loose legs I gave the frame a new coat of Rustoleum Heirloom White spray paint.

Then I cut a piece of upholstery foam to fit, laid it on top and covered with some old old old fabric I had leftover from a old project. 

Then I trimmed the excess and hot glued some trim to cover the staples to finish it off. Once everything was all freshly painted and finished I noticed that there was a crack in the wood. I used some Gorilla Wood Glue to fill it in and prevent it from splitting further.

Then it was finished! I have a new upholstered bench that cost me next to nothing to make. 

This goes to show that just because a piece of furniture is not functioning well as it's original purpose doesn't mean that it can't be reincarnated as something else just as functional and beautiful.

What kind of repurposing projects have you taken on?

Cute Cafe Chair Update

Some people don't have the time, energy, creativity, whatever- to see the beauty in an old piece of furniture. Lucky for me some of these people live near me! Remember last week when I posted about finding some furniture road kill outside a storage facility? Well I've finished the first makeover from that find.


This poor little chair had good bones but was sadly neglected.

I started by unscrewing the seat cushion, removing the old fabric using a flat head screw driver, and cleaning up the frame to prep it for paint. (Terrible Blogger that I am I forgot to take pictures of most of this process!) It was mainly dusty and dirty with some rust that I had to scrub off. I read that some people use CLR to clean t=rust off, but mine chair came clean with sand paper pretty easily.

I couldn't figure out how to take off the seat back, so when spray painting I just covered it with tape and paper. I used Rustoleum Heirloom White to give the frame a new life. Then using some fabric leftover from another project I reupholstered the cushions, adding some batting to the seat for a more comfortable sit. 

Basically measure out your fabric or trace the old fabric as a template. Then staple at the center of each side making sure each side is even and the fabric is taught (tawt?). Then move to the corners and work your way in finishing off each side with staples. Cut off any excess for a clean finish. (For a better tutorial on this process check out this post here!) 

For the back of the chair I reused the same cardboard cutout and wrapped my fabric around it, using a light dusting of spray adhesive to keep in in place. Then nailed it back on with upholstery tacks

Then screw the seat back on and your finished!

I think it turned out totally cute! Don't you love giving new life to old furniture?

Total Genius or Totally Insane?

Sometimes I take on a project or get an idea where I don't know if it's really a good idea or feasible. This is one of those times. 


I saw these chairs at one of my favorite thrift stores and liked them right away. They have a good scale, are comfortable, and have clean lines. After talking the guy down to $60 each I felt like I got a good deal.

After I brought them home though, my husband had different feelings. Usually when I bring home an old piece of furniture or some street side rescue all I get is an eye roll or a head shake and maybe a  "Here we go again." 

This time though, he told me I got ripped off! I don't feel that way- I think these chairs could be really awesome if I reupholster them in a leather look fabric like this:

The fabric I'm looking at is pretty inexpensive. But I got a quote to reupholster them and it was $350 per chair not including the cost of fabric! So maybe my husband is right, maybe I made a bad decision this time. 

I'm thinking about tackling the upholstery job myself. I've seen lots of bloggers take on this task themselves with great results. There are lots of videos online that show the basics. It would be a big task and I really hope I don't mess the chairs or fabric up. 

So what do you think? Did I make a huge mistake with the purchase of these chairs? Or should I look at it as an opportunity to learn a new skill and (hopefully) end up with some awesome lounge chairs?

Chair a Holic

Hi My name is Rachelle and I am a Chair A Holic.

Ever since we got the news that we are moving I've been trying to clear our clutter and decide what furniture we'll take with us to the new house and what we might try to sell. And something I've discovered is that I have quite a few chairs. 

Vintage Chairs

Dining Chairs

Mid Century Lounge Chairs

Cafe Chairs (I have 2 of these!)

Outdoor Stools

Lounge Chair

I don't know what it is but I LOVE chairs! All kinds of chairs, small chairs, big chairs, lounge chairs, dining chairs, side chairs, ect. I may be in danger of becoming one of those people on that hoarders show.

I know a lot of people have collections but chairs are kind of a big thing to collect.

Famous chairs I'd love to get my hands on:

So what to keep and what to get rid of? I think that once we find a new house in Altus I'll have a better idea. Until then I'm going to enjoy my chairs, all 25 million of them!

Do you have a favorite furniture or decorative accessory you can't get enough of?



Slipcovering an old Lounge Chair

It's done! You may remember that one of my plans for this year was to try and take an upholstery class so I could reupholster this old chair. It belonged to my parents who bought it when they first got married. They gave it to the hubs and I when we bought our first home when we were young and furnitureless.

I love this old chair, it's comfy and a good scale for our living room. Not to big or bulky, just right! And I thought it had good lines, just needed some new upholstery. Well, I have yet to take an upholstery class but decided slipcovering would be a good option. I searched and searched for quite some time for just the right fabric for it.

The first thing I did was cut off the old skirt to expose the wooden legs underneath.

Next I used an old sheet to make a template for each piece I needed. This is my most ambitious sewing project yet. I'm not a proffesional seamstress so I wanted to make sure I was doing this right. And I didn't want to risk wasting my nice fabric with any mistakes I might make. This also allowed me to line up the pattern where I wanted it.

After I cut all my pieces out of my new fabric I refitted them on the chair again to find the lines I was going to sew along.



Then sewed it all up! I am so proud and excited about this project I can barely contain myself.

And check out the cute wooden legs that have been hiding under the skirt all these years!

For details on how I did this check out my post here.