How to reupholster, Part 3b - the finale!!!

It is time to finish up our journey in reupholstering.  I believe we left off with me beating my head in the wall a few times.  Never fear, the headache is gone.  Okay, yesterday I left off without any pictures.  So, here we go.  I began attaching the fabric starting with the last piece I had removed.  Let me just say that I tried and tried to use my electric stapler but no luck.  I had to go old school and use my trusty tack hammer and tacks.  Here she is after attaching the back piece of the front.

You may have noticed that I put new batting down on the front of the chair.  Once I saw the previous batting in the light of day, it looked a little dirty.  You know from yesterday's post that it was a bear to get the bottom front stapled without wrinkles.  After I got that under control, I stapled down the seat cushion then the back of the chair.  Here is all of that hard work:

Now for the lipstick!  I tried to go the easy route and buy some sort of braiding but had no luck matching colors.  I got busy making double cording to cover those unsightly tacks.  My supplies were cording, 2" strips of the fabric and a double cording foot.

I was pretty intimidated about making the double cording but there is a great tutorial at Design Intervention here.  This is a shot of my success!

Now, I just need to heat up the glue gun and get this chair done!

Just a reminder of the before:

Okay, drum roll please!!!!!

I can't tell you how happy I am to complete one chair.  I'm linking up to the following blogs to show this baby off:

How to reupholster, Part 3a -the saga continues....

I really did mean to be finished with this chair but boy did it throw me for some loops.  One would have thought that attaching only 3 pieces of fabric would be easy.  Ha!  Ha!  The beautiful curves that attracted me to this chair has been my archenemy!  I have felt like Charlie Brown when Lucy keeps taking away the football every time he tries to kick it!

My biggest road block has been trying to fix the lower front back where the seat cushion meets the back.

I actually stapled and restapled, with bottom of the front back bottom about 3 different times.  Because of the curve, I kept getting wrinkles in the fabric.  I continued to cut the fabric like your suppose to around corners to give a better fit.  I even had to try to stuff in more batting.  Well, I beat my head into the wall so much I have a headache now. 

Tomorrow I promise to post a more thorough explanation on reupholstering.  Right now, I am to pooped from my early, early morning Black Friday shopping and beating my head against the wall over this chair.  Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving. 

How to reupholster a chair, Part 2

Are you ready to continue this journey with me?  Okay, now that the girl is stripped to her undergarments, it's time to give her a thorough examine.  Because the batting looks good and I'm trying to be as lazy as possible, I gingerly checked with stuffing which looked fine.  Usually, you would want to check the springs but I did mention that I'm trying to be lazy, didn't I?  In this case, I feel pretty confident about them because the chair sits well.  As I continue the examination, I noticed a hairline fracture in the frame.  It runs with the grain so I missed it when buying the chair.  If only I caught it early maybe I could have shaved a little money off the price.  Oh well.

Here is where my "know it all" hubby comes in.  At which time, he advices on how "he" will proceed to repair the damage.  What?  Someone has to take the pictures!  Okay, maybe it is a little more than a hairline fracture.   He decided on using a screw as well as wood glue.  Sorry, no pictures of the drilling into the frame for the screw.  He made a minor oops.  We both agreed I should walk away.  We both survived.  On to the wood glue!

As you can see, it is pretty much glue, clamp, and wait.  I'm hoping to finish up by Friday, but we'll have to see what kind of deals might make me want to jump out of bed to shop at 4 in the morning.  So, as we wait for the glue to dry, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

How to reupholster a chair, Part 1

Is everyone ready to start our upholstery journey?  Here we go!!!! 

If this is your first time reupholstering a piece, I suggest going to the library and having a how to book around.  You may even find a how to video as well.  First, let's talk about the tools you may need to begin the stripping process.  If you eat as much as I do on Thanksgiving, these tools may just come in handy to pry off those pants that looked really cute at the beginning of the day.  Anyways, I used a stapler/tack remover, mallet, and long needle nose pliers.  (Just a note.  It is nice to have pliers with a comfortable grip.  It may help prevent blisters.)

 Now, it is time to strip!  You want to start with the back of the chair.  Try to remove the cording or braiding.  Then, get started removing that fabric.  Little did I know that whoever upholstered this chair previously used industrial strength, you're never gonna get me off glue for the braiding.  It actually melted the parts of the fabric onto the wood frame at times making it extremely difficult to remove without damaging the frame.  Thus, my previous comment regarding comfortable pliers.  I made a run to Home Depot just to pick up a more comfortable pair for the second chair.   

After you peel away the back, next is the outside arms.  Fortunately, this chair doesn't have that.  Moving on, you would then take off the inside arms.  Thank goodness, I didn't have to do that either.  Next comes for the front back of the chair.  Does that even make sense?  Last, but not least, the seat cushion.  On a side note, you never know how someone put the chair together.  Be sure to take pictures.  

So, her is one of the girls exposed to her undergarments.  Tomorrow we will cover checking for repairs to frame and assessing the possible need to replace any stuffing, foam, and all that jazz.  Right now, I believe I will nurse my blister by laying back on my couch with a nice cold soda!  Until tomorrow!!!!