Re-Upholstering a Wing Back Chair, Part 2: Putting it Back Together

Happy Friday! It doesn't feel like Friday because of my short week, but I'm sure glad it is! Before we get in to how I finished the wing back lady, here are some reference posts for the whole re-upholstery process.

Choosing Fabric
Before + After
Step 1: Taking it Apart

Now let's put this bad boy back together...

 STEP 5: SPRAY PAINT 
Next up are the legs. Meow. Look at the legs on this lady. They had all the right curves but no pizazz. I used some left over spray paint (from this project) in Rust-oleum Metallic Oil Rubbed Bronze. It actually turned out to be more of a deep dark brown with a little metallic shimmer in the sunlight. I love it!

 STEP 6: NEW FOAM! 

After the deconstruction, we realized that a lot of the foam was really worn down. So much that you could feel the wood beneath it. Off to Joann's I went and luckily over Memorial Day weekend they were having a 50% off sale on all foam! I got 2 1/2 yards of 1/2 inch thick foam and it was just enough to cover the arms, wings and the front bottom portion (the seat cushion and the back were still in good shape). I didn't cut the foam exact, but enough so I could staple it where I needed to and then cut off the excess. On the bottom front piece, we had to cut the corners and then use the hot glue gun to get the corner piece to stay.

 STEP 7: CUTTING THE FABRIC 

This part took me forever. There are a lot of things to consider before you start cutting. For instance, does your fabric need to be lined up (like stripes)? Do you have enough fabric? Do you want certain parts of the pattern to show? Thankfully, mine didn't completely need to get lined up, but I did want some of the bigger pieces of the pattern to show up on the back and the seat. I wasn't sure at first that I would have enough fabric... so I didn't care if the pattern showed a certain way. But after I rolled it all out I realized I had plenty of fabric (almost a yard left over!) and I was a little more picky with my placement.

The method I used to cut the fabric was very scientific. I measured each edge and angle to get the perfect cut. Well, not exactly. :) I used the original fabric pieces as a guide, then pinned them to the new fabric where I wanted and cut out each piece. I kept the old fabric pinned and labeled to the freshly cut fabric until I was ready to put it back on the chair. We also saved all the other fabric pieces that were sewn to the pretty pieces to reuse (they were for extra reinforcements when stapled back to the chair).

 STEP 7: SEWING THE FABRIC 
This part I can take no credit for. Absolutely none. My mother is a saint and a bad ass seamstress. She did all the piping and the whole cushion! She's amazing! I definitely couldn't have done this part without her! The piping by itself was really easy - we just cut 1 1/2 inch strips and reused the cord from the chair. But, the cushion was a little more tricky. The piping was factored into the cushion fabric so there was a lot of crazy folding and seams. I won't go in to detail, but it was a tricky little beast. But she did it! And it turned out so good!

 STEP 8: STAPLING 
After everything was cut and ready to go, we put the lady back together. I looked at my notes, started with the last piece we took off, and went from there. Once we got going, it actually went pretty fast (so fast, I forgot to take a bunch of pictures...). Just a bunch of staples and a little bit of hammering to get them flush to the wood and it worked like a charm. Just pull the fabric, staple, hammer, repeat. It's that easy!

Viola! Done! I think it's pretty obvious that I love how it turned out. It's so much fun and bright and cheery! I love looking at it.

It's amazing seeing it all come together after a lot of hours of hard work! Have you done any bigger projects recently where you feel really satisfied when you are done?

Re-Upholstering a Wing Back Chair, Part 1: Taking it Apart

Since I'm declaring the rest of this week "Re-Upholstery Week," let's get on with it already!

I should give a little disclaimer here. This is based on my experience in re-upholstery. I am in no way an expert, I just like to tackle projects and figure them out as I go. I did reference a lot of other blogs (I'll share those with you later on) and they helped me tremendously to figure out where to start and what to do next. 

First up is taking the beast apart. This is the fun part and probably the easier part. Who doesn't love demolishing things and taking them apart?

 STEP 1: BUY YOUR FABRIC 
Remember this post about how I chose my fabric? That was probably the hardest part! :) I think it's easiest to choose a busy print with no certain direction so it's easier to line up the pattern (for instance, if you used stripes you'd have to make sure every line matched up or it would be totally noticeable). The guide in the post is really helpful in deciding how much fabric you will need, too.

 STEP 2: TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES 
The best piece of advice I can give you for the entire re-upholstery process is to take lots of pictures. Take pictures before you take it apart. Take pictures while you take it apart. This is really important because at least in my case, the pictures acted as my guide to putting the chair back together. Get all the weird angles and funky seams photographed because believe me, you will forget by the time you put it back together!

 STEP 3: GATHER YOUR SUPPLIES 

You'll need these supplies at one point or another throughout the whole process. To start, you'll primarily need the pliers, a screwdriver, masking tape, and a sharpie (or other writing utensil).

 STEP 4: TAKE IT APART! (AND TAKE NOTES) 

Along with taking pictures, I would say take good notes too. At least write down what order you took each piece (or section) off in, that way when you put it back together you just need to reverse the order.

Find the top layer (the last piece that was put on) and start peeling it away (very carefully, of course - we're dealing with staples here!). With this chair, it was the back piece that came first (actually, I guess it was the bottom piece if we get technical). It's actually really fascinating to see how a chair is made and put together (and kind of shocking how my chair at least was so piece-meal). Buster really wanted to help out too. :)

As far as how we took it apart, our method consisted of prying the staples off the chair with the flat head screwdriver, then using the pliers when needed to get the full staple out (sorry I don't have a better picture). Oh, and don't forget the muscle! :)

After we took each piece apart, I labeled each piece with masking tape which side and where it belonged on the chair. This was also really helpful when we went to put it back together.

OK, I think you get the picture. Lots and lots of pictures. Take them. Trust me, you'll be glad you did!

Taking the chair apart is probably the most important part of the process because it's how you learn how to put the chair back together. You know, Humpty Dumpty style.

Tomorrow we'll put this baby back together!

Before + After: The Wing Back Lady

The day has finally come! After looking at this lady for months and months in all her teal glory, I finally made the change and she has blossomed into the wing back lady she was meant to be!

First, let's look back at where we started - my $25 Craigslist find with worn down padding under that well used teal fabric. 

Without further ado, allow me to introduce you to the new and improved Wing Back Lady!

What do you think? A complete 180 right? I am so happy with how she turned out! She was definitely a labor of love and I couldn't have done it without the help of my amazing mom (she did all the sewing/piping) and of course, the husband, too (he helped some with the stapling). :) Thank you guys for helping out! If I didn't have them to help me, it would have taken me a couple more days on my own. As it was, the project took us probably around 18 man hours (that includes my mom sewing while I was cutting - double time, basically). 

Here's how the progress went down (in pictures). Full tutorial to come...

I'm declaring the rest of this week "Re-Upholstery Week" here on the blog. It's kind of like Shark Week, but way more intense and suspenseful. Get ready, people! I'll be doing a series of tutorials on how I re-upholstered the Wing Back Lady! Exciting, right?!

Let's talk about the Benjamin's, shall we? Here's a breakdown of the total cost:

Chair - $25
Fabric - $98.97
Foam - $12.50
Spray Paint - $0 (already owned, but would be about $5)
Staples - $4
Total Cost - $140.47

I'd say that's a pretty good price, wouldn't you? Some of my anthropologie inspiration chairs (remember this post?) range anywhere from a few hundred dollars to (gasp!) $1,900!!! Yeah... that's definitely not in my medical school budget. But $140 + a little bit of blood, sweat and tears laughter? Yes, please!

More to come with a ton of pictures and some major how-to. Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Chair Update

Hello friends! I'm exhausted... so glad I took today off of work because I needed an extra day to recover! Good news... we finished the chair! Bad news... I can't share it with you just yet. I'm working on uploading all the photos and putting together some kind of tutorial, so more to come tomorrow! For now, here's a little teaser.

And this is about how I feel right now...

I hope you all had a nice and relaxing Memorial Day Weekend!