A Junky Chair: Part 1

I've been insanely busy with work. Lots of OT to fill, lots of hours away from home. I had just one full day off to do something of my choosing over my last (should have been 4 day) weekend. Husband was out of town and I was left with no rules.

So I shopped.

At the thrift store I scored two great finds.

These matching lamps

&

a junky chair.

I spied this junky chair on the tippy top shelf at the thrift store (like Walmart aisle high). I pulled it down hoping I wouldn't have a dramatic accident. I love it, so it came home with me.

I left the thrift store with an idea in my head and went straight to Home Depot. I then carted out 9 cans of spray paint and primer. Then off to Walmart to browse the fabric section.

You surely can't beat $1.50 a yard. Or the fact that the girl cutting the fabric kindly gave me extra because she felt there was just a little too much fringe that I'd probably have to cut off. What a sweetie.

I carefully removed all of the old fabric and the bottom cushioning. I sanded and wiped down the legs.

I primed, then painted the bottom half of the chair a lovely yellow. While it dried I went inside and cut my pattern out of the new fabric. Carefully removing the old fabric allowed me to use it as a pattern. I cut the new fabric just a tad bit bigger in case I made any mistakes. Which of course I have, and have to fix. But thankfully I have the room to do it!

The back went on nicely. I was super pleased. I used a heavy duty stapler to attach the fabric. One I borrowed from my neighbor who wasn't home. Their son was. He only gave me the stapler, and no extra staples. There weren't many in there and with as shy as I am, I couldn't make myself go back over to knock on the door again.

"Um hi... While I'm using your stapler to recover a chair for my house, how about you provide me with all the staples for the job too..."

My conservation powers still made for a killer staple job.

The seat was a little more testy.

The skirt was my biggest enemy. This chair was all no-sew. The skirt was cut from the edge of the fabric and then folded in half to create a clean bubble hem. I fused the top together with hemming tape, then folded the top again to create a lip to attach the skirt to the chair without staples or nails showing.

I also ran out of staples, so thankfully I saved the old upholstery nails from the last job. I even added little pleats along the way.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out so far. The picture doesn't really do the look of the fabric justice one bit. The back still isn't attached because I don't want any nails showing like the previous job had done. So I found the pretty silver upholstery nail heads online and ordered them up. As soon as they're here I'll line the top of the skirt and around the back to attach the last piece of fabric. With paint drying and a beer break it took about six hours.

Fun none the less! Can't wait to share the finished product. Oh, and the lamps too!

Check out where I've shared my junky chair: