Last Monday, the upholstery gods smiled down on me. I got an e-mail that a last-minute spot had opened up in the upholstery class starting that Wednesday and my name was first on the wait-list if I still wanted the spot. Yes please!!! Our beloved antique chair needed some serious freshening up, and since I have big plans for it in our living room, I jumped on the opportunity.
As soon as the class started Wednesday evening, the teacher had us start breaking down our chairs- aka tear it apart. I almost couldn't do it! I should have started with a chair with no emotional attachment.
WARNING, if you're of the furniture faint of heart or just don't have the emotional fortitude to see a naked chair, I'd stop reading now.
I warned you.
Disrobing chair pictures commencing in
...3...
...2...
...1...
At this point, I was sneezing up a storm. Disintegrating fabric and original horse-hair stuffing are the stuff allergic dreams are made of.
Once I got all the fabric, stuffing and burlap off, I had precisely 50 kagillion staples that I had to remove from the frame. I counted. (just kidding, I'm not sure I can count that high... and certainly not while trying to efficiently remove staples)
At the end of the first 3 hour class, I had an entirely naked and staple-less chair. Isn't the wood detail pretty?
It's minorly heartbreaking to see our chair like this, but I know the end result is going to be Awe Some! I'm so excited to start putting the chair back together this week. Especially since I think I finally settled on a fabric (that even Hubby approves of):
I think this gray ikat might be just the statement this chair needs without screaming for attention. mmm pretty.
As an upholstery novice, I'd love to hear about your DIY upholstery experiences! Any tips and/or tricks I should know?