Sling glide chairs

It's fall and it's still nice out here for the most part, so come on over and have a seat...

Ok, well you might not want to choose THESE chairs to sit in.  Ugh!

Let the makeover begin!  Remove the nasty green canvas and sand the wood a bit.

We used this product on the boathouse so I know it will be good for the wood on the chairs.

Brush it on and let it dry.

The stain sealer makes the wood much nicer, almost looks new!

I just measured the nasty green canvas and cut the same measurement out of Sunbrella fabric.  It's indoor/outdoor fabric, but it is lighter weight than the original heavy duty canvas.  So I sewed two pieces together back to back to make it heavier.  Using the handy staple gun (that I love), I attached the fabric to the wood frame.

Now, won't you have a seat?

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Flaunt It Friday

The Box

During my search for items for the college house, I thought a storage cube would be useful.  I am sure you have seen them at Target.  I didn't buy one because I thought the lid might come off during the first week of use!  I also ran across this example from Pottery Barn.  Maybe I could make a box and learn to do that tufted pillow top.

I ran across just the thing in a thrift store.  It was a rectangle box covered with 80's looking country blue upholstery fabric.  A great find!  The inside was also lined with fabric.  I'll remove all that and put some updated fabric on it.   The hinges were kind of odd but looked stronger than the Target version.

So it sat waiting it's turn for about a year now...

I started with the pillow top, there was actually a small pillow under there.  It was kind of janky the way the edge was done, it was rolled up and nailed along the edges. 

And this is what I found underneath!  An old wooden beer box. 

Wow!  What a surprise!  I had never seen one and have no idea how old it is.  My classmates asked "are you going to cover that up"?   NO, I'm not!

There's no "brewed on" date on it.  From my research, it is in much better shape than the 1920s version and it's not a 1976 100-year commemorative reproduction.   I would guess somewhere between 1940 and 1970.  How's that for a guess?  Ha ha!

I was so excited!  I needed this surprise especially after my curb chair disappointment!

Do you know anything about the beer box?

Curb chair

This old rocker cost $5.  It must have been someone's great-grandmother's chair.  My instructor called it a straight back rocker.  With some updated fabric, it was going to the college house when finished!  

When you sit in it, it rocks w-aaaay back.  I asked "how do you know when the springs need replacing?"  The instructor replied, "when you rock back and land on the floor"!   Ha ha!!   Well, I didn't land on the floor but the springs did need replacing.

It's arm was "slightly" broken when I bought it.  No problem, I could fix that!

Then, while moving the chair around, I leaned on it and the arm broke completely off!  Still not a big problem.  With some wood glue and screws it could be fixed.

A couple of posts back, I mentioned that you never know what you're going to find when you start taking these things apart.

It had 3 layers of fabric on it.  Wonder which one would be best for a pattern?  The top layer was attached using glue.  So I ripped it right off thinking I would use the next layer for a pattern.  That gold and red layer was attached using really small tack nails.  It was easier to tear the fabric away from those nails than remove the nails first.    It was impossible to get them all off so I hammered them in.   The staples on that green layer were so rusty they practically fell apart.  That fabric was some kind of nylon that was so brittle it came off easily.  

Not one piece could be used as a pattern.  The good thing is the fabric pieces were straight forward enough that I could just measure the new fabric instead of using an old piece as a pattern.  No problem.  10 hours, 2 cuts and 2 very sore hands later, I had all the fabric off.  

When I took the final burlap and straw layer off, it released the tension on the springs and pulled the bottom frame apart!  Oh no! 

My instructor can fix any piece of furniture so he proceeds to explain how to repair it.  And it wouldn't have been too difficult with his help, of course. 

A fellow student who works in a cabinet shop, pointed out that one of the back rails was split and that he could make a new piece to replace that one.

I really appreciate their offers to save the chair...


Curb chair

But it became the curb chair instead.  

Had it been my great grandmothers chair or one that I was working on for someone else it would have been different.  I would have stuck with it and saw every piece to the finish.

But sometimes you gotta know when to call it quits!

Sock, Cosco and Cane chair

Slowly but surely I've managed to complete a few other chair projects over the past few months. 

Unfortunately, I wasn't so dedicated to taking before pictures.  Probably because some of these chairs looked awful, too bad for pictures! 

And I had to stop buying chairs.  I was running out of room and my house was looking like a second hand furniture store.  Not that my house looked that good to begin with, but still I had to stop buying chairs until I could get a few finished!

This is an armless chair that apparently was a part of a sectional sofa in its old life.  The cushion has springs and the chair was still in great shape.



In it's new life, it's my sock chair.  You know the chair you sit on to put your socks on.  In reality, it's the chair that holds the clothes that didn't get put away!



Sock chair

These are 1950s Cosco chairs.  I wish I had taken before pictures because I cannot find similar pictures on the internet.  Basically, I recovered the arms and spring cushions.  I thought I would never get done with the cushions because I couldn't get the corners to line up.   I pinned and stitched and ripped it out...repeat.   I also learned that seamstress' use pins, upholsterers do not.  What?!  How can you not use pins?  Mrs. Mckee, my Home Economics teacher, would have a fit if we didn't use pins!  

They are so comfortable!

1955 Cosco chairs

The cane in the back of this chair had become so brittle it was breaking.  Replacing cane mats like this one seems intimidating, but it's really not too bad.   Now I just need to finish putting the trim piece on it.  After refinishing the wood and recovering the seat, it makes a nice desk chair.  NOW, the desk needs refinishing...one project just leads to another...the desk is on the to-do list.

Cane back chair

Have a seat and let me know what you think.

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Upstyle chair

Yay,  I finally finished it!   You just never know what you'll get into when redoing a piece of furniture.   Actually, the hardest part for me is picking out the fabric.  There are so many beautiful choices! 

Here's the before.  Straight from the thrift store, country and charming, right?  Even in my short experience with upholstery, I could tell this chair had previously been reupholstered by someone who did a very good job!   And I was about to take it apart.

I knew I wanted to go with a neutral color.  A flexible color that would go with a lot of other colors.  This way I could swap out pillows if I wanted to!  Here's my inspiration chair.

Let the deconstruction begin.  You never know what's underneath until you get there!

The wood was scratched up a little so I refinished it and updated the color to a dark walnut.

The fabric is linen and it won't be a heavily used chair, so we'll see how well it holds up.

I like the contrasting colors of the wood and fabric.

No skirt needed, let those legs show for a more updated look.  This was my first project using double welt cording and this chair had a lot of that! 

Even the armrest got a facelift.  There's no way I was putting that puffy thing back on that was originally there, ugh.  It does take some effort to get the folds to match the other arm but it can be done (ok, it can be close)! 

Then there's the cushion.  Cushions are my challenge.  Lots of lining up and matching here and there.

When I saw this Pottery Barn pillow cover on sale, I had the perfect place for it.

The linen and the pillow look like they were made for each other.  Awe! 

Now come on in and have a seat! 

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Upholstery 101

"I'm going back to college", I announced one day at lunch.  ~Blinks~ What?!   Yes, I signed up for the Upholstery class at a local community college.  Oh.  No one seemed very interested beyond that.

It's the ultimate house...premo locale...walking distance to the stadium and campus.  My daughters were ecstatic that they were going to be living there.  NOT at the community college, but at THE university!  The Bassman and I were excited too in sticker shock.  Now to figure out furnishings.  I headed off to the Pottery Barn thrift store to see if there was anything at all that my daughters would even consider having in the house.  "It's a college house", I said (knowing how well things are going to be taken care of...ahem) "so the old sofa and chair from the sunroom is going there."  But it's not cute.  The situation improved from there when I proposed random chairs, painted, with fabric seating, a shabby chic look.  It was something I could learn to do.  This was a plan that we all agreed on!  I have about $5 - $8 in each of these chairs.  Including the fabric, the dining table and chairs cost about $50.  

The girls and their roommate picked out the fabric.  This was not something I could be trusted to do!  It had to be cute and have everyone's approval.   The outdoor fabric was a good choice since it is stain and soil resistant.  We all agree they are cute and are quite comfy too! 



Cute.  Roll Tide.