04 June 2012

A Quick Fix Chair Recover

Thankfully my mom likes to redecorate often.
She and dad are trying to make their house a little more Mission Style which means that sometimes we get their old furniture.
Yay, us!
Our most recent adoption was a tall kitchen buffet that we put in our living room as a desk.
The one I sit at to talk to you.
This one.
Right here.

Since it's so high we needed bar stools to sit at it so that we didn't stand awkwardly and uncomfortably for long periods of time like we used to at our library computers in college.
"L-U!"
I bought two chairs from the local Christmas Tree Shop but those were constantly being drug into the kitchen as the kids wanted to join me while I worked.
For a couple of months now I've been on the hunt for new ones and finally found a couple of fun ones at a tag sale down the street.
They're the perfect height and rather comfortable but the seat was kinda ugly and dated so I headed to my fabric stash... because why pay?!... and gussied them up just a pinch.
All it took was a hand held staple gun... (I think it was about $15 from the hardware store, maybe less and I've used it for TONS of projects over the years) and some fabric. I used an upholstery weight so it will last through all our wiggling around. 
First unscrewed the seat cover from the bottom of the chair.
Then I laid the fabric face-down on the floor and laid the cushion face-down over it.
I highly recommend working with larger pieces of fabric at first but if you must buy fabric and need to figure out how much you need, or for some reason must cut it before you staple it into place add 3"-4" excess on all sides because you're going to need to be able to grab and pull the fabric taught as you staple.
The key, I've found, to getting crisp corners is to work with little bits at a time and work from the sides of the corner in towards the middle of it. Just keep grabbing small pieces, pulling them, and stapling them when they are tight to the seat.
You're less likely to regret more staples to don't be stingy cause you will regret it if your fabric starts to come loose.
 Cut the excess fabric off about 1/2"-3/4" from the staples and be sure to uncover the holes to screw the seat back into place.
I have considered painting the chairs but to be honest I really like the wood grain on these guys.
Any thoughts?
Happy Monday!

2 comments:

  1. Krystle, you are so crafty and creative...the chairs look great. Wish I could get some projects done around the house...where do you get the motivation/energy...

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  2. This was such an easy redo! Good job! I think the green was a smart choice since its neutral and goes well with the wood tone.

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