This is a big moment for me - the four vintage chairs that, 2 years ago, started out like this...
...and then sat like this for a year and a half...
...with 3 of them getting upholstery to this point...
...to be interrupted by the rotted back wall of the house plus everything that followed after...
...are finally, FINALLY completely finished. Gimp and all.
I can now take a full shot of my living room with all 4 chairs instead of trying to fake that I had 4 (because the last chair didn't even get upholstery until this week).
The final step was to make the gimp, which was tedious at best. But hey - why should that part be easy when everything else about these chairs has been challenging? Why break tradition, right?
The gimp is what covers all the staples that hold the upholstery in place around the edges, FYI.
I made the gimp by cutting 1.25" strips of velvet ( I wish I had cut them at 1" because the final width was too wide to nicely do inside angles). The velvet was folded into thirds as I fed it through the sewing machine, sewing it straight down the center. Sometimes the raw edge of the velvet stuck out too much, so on some of the strips I trimmed the raw edge away closer to the stitching. This way the raw edge was completely hidden when it was hot-glued onto the chair.
Fun, fun, fun. But now they are all done.
I'm SO glad these are finished at last. And if I ever get this kind of a bright idea again, please stop me. Somehow, some way. :-)
Since I love upholstery so much (not) I decided to redo the upholstery on my new dining chairs as well.
Actually what really happened is that I could not, for the life of me, find 4 sturdy dining chairs that I loved on Craigslist down here. This is not DC Craigslist territory. At all. There were chairs that I adored from various online sources, but they were all too expensive. Sorry, there's no way I'm paying $150+ for one dining chair. So I ended up buying these white chairs from Target clearance ($50 each) and redid the upholstery with velvet that I had purchased ages ago and never used.
This is what the fabric looked like when they arrived. Nice, but not in line with the decor in my house.
The trickiest part was popping out the top sections without damaging the wooden frame. Plus I had to make piping for the top oval, which is never fun for me because I don't have a machine that can handle the bulky piping and thick fabric without skipping stitches all over the place. But it's all done now, hurray hurray! Hot glue and a good heavy duty stapler are my best friends on these types of projects.
Our cat has since decided that, for whatever reason, these chair cushions make nice claw scratching objects. Grrrr. She is currently banned from the dining room, needless to say. Like a cat can be banned from anyplace, right?
In any case, I'm officially chaired out now. Until I make a slipcover for the armchair by the french door. But I'm not even going to think about that right now. Today I'm just going to revel in the satisfaction of completing a project that's been 2 years in the making. Definitely a red letter day.
You are incredible! I can't even get my son's room painted.
Nice job!!!
Posted by: Emilie | October 18, 2013 at 04:16 PM
Stunning as always.
Posted by: Sonia B | October 18, 2013 at 09:24 PM
Your chairs are beautiful. I've been wanting to reupholster a platform rocker that was my grandmother's. I was sure you'd do it for me and now you're chaired out. I always come in a dollar short and a day late. LOL You make it look and sound so easy! You're amazing!
Posted by: Beverly Atkins | October 21, 2013 at 05:43 AM
Your chairs turned out beautiful. It's the end result you look for no matter how long.. All that you do is amazing pat yourself on the back!!! Love your blog Jude in So CA
Posted by: plus.google.com/105020201434509838379 | October 23, 2013 at 12:01 AM