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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Guest Day Thursday: Anna’s Chairs

I asked my darling friend Anna to do a post about her remade chairs. She is so cute, and it was a fun idea. Here she gives us a great tutorial about her chairs. Thanks Anna!!! (by the way, watch for more from her next week)

Teri

My Danish roots run deep in me, which is what inspired me to do this project. To go along with the white pottery and authentic Copenhagen china plates collected from the travels to Denmark, I was motivated to change my hand-me-down dining room set from

THIS

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…To something new. I cannot take all the credit for the project because the hand-me-downer aunt was the one coaching me along as this was my first attempt at reupholstering.

My tools included:

1 yard each of fabric of my choice

Flathead screw driver

Drill

Staple gun

Needle & thread

Sewing machine

My husband’s big strong muscles

First I removed the seat and back of each chair with the drill.

Using the screwdriver, I removed the staples holding the fabric on the underside of the seat. I also unpicked the seams from the backs of the chair.

From the fabric removed, I unpicked all the seams and used that fabric as a template for my new fabric.

It was then easy to trace onto and cut out my new fabric.

With my sewing machine I sewed all the fabric together, leaving on of the long edges of the back open so I could slip it over the real back

Just for fun, I added another layer of foam to add some extra cushion on the seats.

I fit the new fabric onto the foam and board that made the seat. When I flipped it over, I gently tugged the fabric over the edge and stapled it directly to the board. I did the corners first, then the sides. It took me a couple tries to the tension on the corners and sides just right. I found that when I stapled the corners first, it was easier to finish the sides.

For the backs, I slipped the fabric over the top, and hand whip stitched the bottom edge.

After soliciting my husband and his big muscles, we drilled the pieces back on the chair frames. And bippity -

Boppity –

BOO!

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There are several silly nips and tucks that my eye always directly goes to when I look at my new chairs. But in the words of my mom, “It’s perfectly imperfect. And therein lays the charm.”

Wouldn’t it be so fun to go to dinner there and be assigned your own special chair? Thanks again Anna!!!

This post linked for Anna at:

DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land

Furniture Feature Friday @ Mustard Seed Creations

4 comments:

The Quintessential Magpie said...

Those are very clever! Love how bright and cute they look. Thanks to you and your friend for sharing...

XO,

Sheila :-)

michelle@somedaycrafts said...

These look absolutely great! Love the choice of fabric!

Miss Mustard Seed said...

I really like the toile chair, much better! And I think it was a great idea to use different fabric on each one. They are united by shape, but each one is unique. Nicely done!

niartist said...

Great post. I prefer things that are perfectly imperfect! :) That's a fantastic slogan I think I might pick up and use often! :)