Friday, August 31, 2012

Re- upholstery class: the finished product!

You may remember that I posted about an upholstery class that I was taking a while back.  Well I'm delighted (and sad) to say that today was our last day and I now have a completely renovated chair!  When I first found it in my mums attic it was in a pretty sorry state,
 It took me most of the first class just to get all the rusty old furniture pins out of it in order to investigate the state of the springs and padding.  Surprisingly enough everything was still in pretty good condition underneath so I was able to put the original stuffing and straw back into it.  The fabric holding everything in needed to be replaced though and a couple of springs also needed re-adjusting.   Then it was time to take it home and do the real work... the SANDING!  Right now I feel like I never want to sand anything again in my life!  Then the sanded wood needed to be varnished, and the arm that had long fallen off had to be attached.  What followed after that was a whole lot of fun with a gas staple gun!  The fabric had to be pulled as tight as possible.

 The final jobs today mainly involved putting an extra fabric lining around the edge so as to hide the staples, and were then hammered in place with these little furniture tacks.   The seat itself is still a little lumpy, but the teacher assures me that it will settle in once it has been sat in a few times.  Because I chose to use the original inners it is a chair for sitting up properly in, not slumping around!

 I also found this beautiful bag (yes it is actually supposed to be a bag) at the markets a while ago and plan to turn it into a little cushion.  I love the embroidery on it and feel that the colours match the chair perfectly.

So this will be the final product!  I really enjoyed doing this course and would definitely recommend giving re-upholstery a go for anybody who has been thinking about it. I am really happy with the way the chair turned out as a first time project.  Now that I know the ropes a little bit there are probably a few things I would do slightly differently or better.  But altogether I'm pretty shuffed!

In fact I may or may not have already started my next piece!  I found this little sweetie at the markets just after I found out I was pregnant.  So of course it HAD to come home with me.  In case it is hard to tell from the photos, it is actually a little children's chair and matches the bigger one so perfectly.  Originally I wanted them both to look similar, but have since wondered whether it might be best to cover it in vinyl again (just not that hideous orange!) so it can easily be cleaned.  Any thoughts from those of you with little ones?  Oh and please excuse the mess in the last photo, that was taken after a long day of sanding!

And just in case any of you might have thought that this is a glamorous job... it's really not!  I'm scared to even throw these jeans in the washing machine in fear that it will clog up from all the dirt!
xx

5 comments:

  1. GET OUT OF TWON THAT IS AMAZING. I have showed my other half and we are both super-keen to do a class, ourselves. Thanks for the idea/inspiration.

    x

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  2. Thank you:). You should definitely do it! Seriously it's so much fun and you feel such a sense of achievement at the end! x

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  3. Awesome job!!! G and I have often discussed doing an upholstery course...but haven't got around to it yet!
    Regarding your last post,Helena has always been a fave of mine.She has great taste,and I have a couple of old,old articles stashed with pix of her Denmark ome and various other things...she rocks!
    XXXXXXXXXX

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  4. Looks great! I would be so scared to try this but the results speak for themselves :) xo

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  5. The blog is giving information about re-upholstery classes and the finished product. Useful product

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    ReplyDelete