Upholstery Chair

Hi Everyone!

I missed blogging and sharing my adventures! SO,  I AM BACK!

On August 17th, I am going to start a second upholstery class with my friend, Carla Holley.  We took our first class last summer at Yukon Oklahoma  Campus of  the Canadian Valley Techology School.  It was a one month class and quite fast paced. The class is so popular! We had no idea it would take over a year before there would be space for us in the class!   

So, I want to share my experience of one of my upholstery projects from our class, last summer.

On the first evening of the class, we had to learn how to prepare the upholstery sewing machine, sew a pillow with cording, and receive permission on our projects from the instructor.  The instructor gave me a thumbs up to work on a chair.

Here is a before-photo of the poor pitiful chair.  Diablo, our cat, loved digging his claws into it!  I had shared a different photo of this chair, when I was trying out Lets Chip It by Sherwin Williams.  (BTW: All the photos were taken with my iPhone, so, you are welcome to roll your eyes at the quality of the photos.)

The first step is to strip the chair of cording and material.  FYI: it took me forever to remove all the staples out of the chair without damaging the wood!!   (Carla and I quickly learned... the secret to the class ...before, the first day of class have your project stripped and ready to cover.)

Most novices would probably choose a solid material or a print that does not have to be aligned like a stripe print, however NO Way Not ME!

 I chose a  STRIPED MATERIAL!  The top and bottom cushion stripes must be aligned with each other! (Thank goodness for the instructor's help!)

The original cording on the chair must be measured and a new cording had to be sewn to go on the chair.  A great reference for instruction of cutting bias cording is offered by the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Kentucky - College of Agriculture.  (Since, I am originally from Kentucky, I just had to use this source. You can always google, "cutting bias cording" for other sources.)

The next step is to use the old material as a pattern and cut the new batting and material for the chair.

Then, the Work of  centering the material to wrap, pulling HARD on the material, and stapling the material to the wood chair back and wood chair seat.  (NO JOKE, about PULLING,  the material should be TAUT!)  My hands were sore from pulling!

After all the work, I had a cushion ready to install (screw) on to the chair.

After the cording was stapled to the bottom and top of the chair and the extra material of the cording trimmed away.  I took this photo of my project!

Here is the chair sitting in the bedroom.

I am Happy with the results and I am looking forward to my second class this month!  I think I am going to tackle the two wing backed chairs in the next class, if the instructor gives me the thumbs UP!

How was your first experience reupholstering furniture?  Please share! 

Wishing you a great weekend!


Wanda

  

  

Painted Front Porch Chair

HI Y’all!

This past Saturday Morning, I was up and moving around by 6:15 am!  After days of HOT weather, the morning was beautiful outside.  I took my "Free Chair" which had been sitting in my garage waiting for attention for THREE YEARS!   Yes, this is the same chair that I mentioned back in 2011, that I was going to finish within the next month to share with you!  TIME FLIES is my only excuse for not finishing the chair earlier.

Here is how the chair looked in 2011

During this past school year, several times, I ventured out to the garage and spray painted the chair with “Valspar Gloss Exotic Sea” and sanded down the chair in different spots.
So, on Saturday Morning, I used a damp cloth to get all the dust off of the chair.

A closer look at the chair seat.  You can see a couple of sanded marks on the chair legs.

I wiped Ralph Lauren’s Tobacco Glaze all over the chair.

I still love this glaze.  I know most people are now using dark wax to enrich the color of furniture. It dries quickly and I already had it in the garage.
Later in the morning, the temperature was rising outside.  I brought the chair inside and placed it in on my kitchen island. I put two coats of Annie Sloan’s Clear soft wax on the chair.



Here is the finished chair on my front porch prior to carrying it to Tom’s House.  With his permission, of course.

A quick look at the backside of the Chair.

Here is the chair on Tom’s front porch.  See the pillow?  I made it Saturday afternoon.  I plan on sharing how I did that later this week.

One more photo to show the final project completed.

What do you think?  Notice the little planter on the porch.  That was a garage sale find!

I am going to the following Link Parties!

Savvy Southern Style

The Trendy Tree House

Organize & Decorate Everything

This is what I did on Saturday!  What did you do on Saturday?  Did you finish any projects that has been hanging around your house for a couple of years like me?

Thank you for your comments and following me on my adventures!  Wishing you a great week!

Wanda