After tackling the bedroom chair, I figured I’d give something bigger a try. For a while now, I’ve been wanting to make our living room a bit more homey and cozy and “us”; but the possibility of going out and buying an entire furniture set was out of the question. Plus, I prefer a more eclectic look, not so matchy-matchy. I want where we live to reflect us and invite people in to stay awhile. Kyle and I are many things, but matchy-matchy we are not.
At the moment we have a couch and loveseat. The couch we love, but the loveseat I’ve loathed for a while. I feel like unless you only invite newlyweds over, it seldom gets used to seat two people. So my plan (because Kyle needs to know that I DO have a plan) is to replace the loveseat with 2 chairs. I found the first of the replacements at a garage sale for $20.
It was perfect! or would be. It was just big enough to hold me and Kade together and would be a great story time chair. Plus it was comfy and spun around, great for being on the edge of the living room that opens into the dining room. I just kept my fingers crossed that once the oily blue fabric and mounds of cat hair were removed, it would be a seat someone would want to sink into.
So far the only experience I had reupholstering furniture was stapling a rectangle of fabric to a wood frame. I really had no idea what I was getting into. I started taking it apart from the bottom and worked my way up, saving every scrap of fabric to use as a pattern and taking lots of pictures, so I would know how it all fit back together. When I uncovered the tac strips and fabric clamps (aka Jaws of Death), my confidence started to wane – but there was no turning back.
Finally, the dissection was over. After cleaning up from the bloody mess, it was time for the fun – new fabric. I found what I wanted at FabricGuru, a great place for inexpensive upholstery fabric. I was a little leery of buying fabric without touching it, but they gave an accurate description and delivered a beautiful chocolate chenille. The cushions took me about 2 hours each. Not because they were incredibly difficult, but because prior to this, the most sewing I had done in my adult life was sewing a basket lining for Kade’s nursery. And that was only under the watchful eye of my sister (who actually had sewn the other 3 and FORCED me to sew the last one. Thanks Sis!) I estimated that putting the chair back together would only take a few hours, since I “knew what I was doing” after taking it apart only a few days before. In some cases, seeing the glass half-full is not appropriate. SEVEN hours later though, I was rewarded with this.
My living room transformation was underway.
