Tuesday, April 13, 2010

From Drab to Fab!

Pin It Well, not completely done yet, but I tackled this chair over the weekend and I have one more to do. These will reside in my husband's new office and serve as the reception area chairs. Upholstery is NOT for the faint of heart!!!!!!!! I went from thinking "Oh, yeah, I've got this. Going to take me two hours" to "Two hours have gone by and I haven't even started stapling the seat yet" to "Why did I EVER think that I could do this" to "Never again, that's what upholsterers are for!" Perhaps trying my hand at a chair with curves as my 1st foray into upholstering wasn't a great idea? I dunno. But I thought this was WAY hard!

I'm fairly happy with the results (sans a few bloopers) but I'm glad I got it out of my system  ;)

The chair before. I picked up a pair of these queen anne repros (a crude interpretation, I must say, but they were $45 a piece, and I saw prettypretty underneath the thick layer of 1990 tapestry)





I got busy sanding and applying a grisaille finish. It came out a little darker than I anticipated, but I really love it nonetheless. I used some simple ticking fabric that I had on hand, hunted down some twill-tape (which is INCREDIBLY hard to find, I must add....that surprised me b/c its so simple and such a staple, I figured it'd be everywhere, but no, of course not and definitely not in the width I needed) I ruined more nailheads than actually used! Blah! If anyone has a tip on how to set them in straight on the 1st shot, I'm all ears ;)

Here it is in progress! I still have to do the elbow pads, which I'm debating if I want to do them in a camel toned velvet vs. the ticking. We'll see :)









Notice that sexy fireplace surround! Whew! No, I mean, eww! 

I should be finished with the whole office soon, and I will definitely do up a whole post on how I manipulated a meager budget {and I mean meager y'all} to something that looks nicely high(er)-end! I'm excited to have it all come together.

xoxo,

Andrea

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3 comments:

celeste.white said...

Andrea! Wow. I know you said you struggled, but WHAT A TRANSFORMATION! You rocked it!

Now, scurry over to my humble abode and help me re-do everything I own. ;)

All The Trappings said...

Oh, C. I can't wait to help you with that ab fab home of yours now!!!! My mind has already been turning about it ;)

Tricia said...

Your chair is fabulous! I love the trim and nailheads. I'm desperately trying to finish a similar chair and you've give me some ideas!
Thanks,
T