Upholstery Progress

Wow, Wednesday totally snuck up on me.  It is Wednesday, right? Hubby and I are a little under the weather today, but I'm doing my best to power through it.  I always seem to feel better when I distract myself than when I just take it easy... Which is good because I have several larger projects that I'm determined to get done this week.  I'm showing some teasers on instagram, but I'll wait until I have the completed projects to show you.

Tonight especially I need to power through this stupid cold, because it's upholstery night!  I LOVE upholstery night!!

Last week when I left my beautiful antique chair at the end of the class, it was finally starting to look like something.  The entire chair is newly cushioned, covered in muslin, and ready for the pretty fabric on top.  That starts tonight.

Once all the fabric gets attached to the front, then the outside of arms and bottom of the back will get closed up last.  One huge thing that I've learned about reupholstery (especially on a piece like this), is that the most important thing is the order in which you do things.  The seat needs fabric before I can attach the back and arm fabric.  I find the process fascinating.

Even though it's been a bit nerve-wracking tearing apart a chair that I love so much, the result is totally going to be worth it.  My living room is going to thank me!  What's even better is that I still have this chair's sibling- the formerly matching settee- sitting in the basement.  Knowing how to reupholster the chair will give me the ability to reupholster it's slightly wider counterpart in the future.

Now back to today's regularly scheduled programming projects.  Have an awesome Wednesday!

Disrobing Furniture

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?