Side table rehab with upholstery (spring 2013)

Poor neglected table

My idea was to upholster this table to cover the ruined wood veneer, and to make it more kid-friendly for my 5 year old's bedroom. So one day when my daughter and I were running errands, we stopped into the Calico Corners up the street. They have a discount section in the back that is suitable for my haphazard projects. I asked my daughter to pick out something and she grabbed some purple & gold fabric that was on clearance for $7/yard. There was less than 2 yards left but I figured we could work with that, so I bought it.

We then headed to a local sewing hub, G Street Fabrics, where we got a wad of batting. I also picked up some brass tacks. (I always loved when my Mom, an accomplished upholsterer, finished a piece of furniture with a neat line of brass tacks and hoped I could work them in).

When I got home I cleaned off this poor table. It had been outside for 2 years and kicked around quite a bit before that, following my husband to various apartments and storage centers. Its veneer was shot but it was still solid and an interesting shape. And I can't stand to throw things out. This particular piece was by Lane, the cedar chest folks.

I unrolled some batting and flipped the table over top of it. This gave me an idea where to cut the first piece of batting. I stapled as I went.

Getting started with the batting

I started with the top, thinking that I might run out of fabric so why waste the effort on the other areas. Then partway through, I figured why not do it all at once? I hate repetitive tasks, and if I ran out of fabric I could always get another piece with a color and pattern that worked with it - or just rip off the batting and stain the rest. The top was my primary concern, as it was going to be the most-seen part of this table.

Top and bottom batting stapled on

The legs were an issue. I wasn't sure what to do about them. I covered them at first, and thought it might work. With fabric, however, they looked like unflattering 80s legwarmers (anyone who remembers that weird turn Woody Woodpecker took during their childhood can get the right visual). So I tore off the batting and fabric and left the legs bare. I need to oil them up and stain them.

Covering the legs turned out to be a bad idea... too puffy & unflattering

Using a staple gun, this whole process went quickly. I figured there was no great need for precision with batting. The fabric was another story: I had so little to work with, I had to maximize it. Of course, I'm not a very precise person so I still winged it! Just more slowly.

On the bottom surface, I reversed the fabric. It was really nice from both sides so I thought it might make an interesting contrast. And the lower area was certain to get less light, so more of the gold could help brighten it.

The vision in my head starts to become a reality... quickly, thankfully

Finally I was ready to finish off the edges. I tucked and pulled and then quickly hammered some brass tacks around the edges. It's amazing how often a small touch becomes the part of something that I love the most. My husband hauled this inside and up to my daughter's room before it started raining... just in the nick of time. That night, she must have decided that this could be a "bunk bed" because we found her tucked into the bottom area, with her pillow and blanket, in the morning.

More or less a finished piece!

Time to complete: 3 hours
Supplies: approx. $40 - specifically:
              $14 for fabric
              $5 for brass tacks
              $20 for batting
              $0 pre-existing table, existing staple gun and staples

Kitchen chair reupholstering (autumn 2012)

Before, fabric is dingy and padding is wimpy

After, fresh fabric and a lot more padding

I've been bothered by our dining room chairs for years. At first, it was the sea foam fabric with grape leaves... but I have no experience recovering chairs so we lived with it. But now they are stained, after years with little goopy kids. And my Mom tightened up the joints on a recent visit, so it seemed like a good time to give them a face lift.

Marker, oatmeal, grape juice - you name it - plus there is a very hard edge 

I started by flipping over the chairs. Only 4 screws kept the seats in place; one on each corner. 

Screws were easy to find and remove

All of the seats have a hard piece of wood holding up the cushion, although the old strap supports are still visible underneath some.

Wooden support that someone used to replace the original straps

Next, I stripped all of the existing layers off of the seats. A pair of pliers was all I needed - I tugged onto the old fabric, not caring if it ripped, and the old staples gave way. Note: gloves would have been wise, as I got scratched by staples a few times.

All of the pieces are ready to go: fabric, foam, batting, seat

Next, I cut out 1" thick foam from a roll I bought at a local fabric store (www.gstreetfabrics.com). I used the seat as a guide and hoped the foam would soften the wooden ledge created by the supporting pieces. I traced a seat over and over with a sharpie pen. Then I used a pair of scissors to cut out the shapes.

Seat shape traced onto foam, exactly the size of the seat

Next I laid out the fabric. I had this leftover from last year, when I thought I could use it for curtains. It was way too heavy and ripped the curtain rods brackets out of the wall! I liked the pattern but the neutral colors and thick texture made it sort of blah for any large expanse. Recently, I started looking at chevrons and other geometric patterns for the kitchen chairs... and after burning several hours online, noticed how much color I already have in the kitchen. Anything more would be overkill. Thankfully I remembered this fabric before hunting down anything new. In small doses, within each chair's frame, it is perfect! Just enough pattern.

I added roughly 2" of buffer for the fabric, so I'd have enough to secure around the seat

I was not too careful with the sharpie pen or with my cutting. All edges would be hidden beneath the chair. That was a relief, as this is a tedious project. Not too hard, but lots of repetition. (My hands are sore!)

Batting is a critical step the last chair owners skipped

I then used the fabric pieces as a guide for the batting. I wanted about an inch less than the fabric, so I could staple just the fabric and not a big blob of material. Again, a quick preliminary trace and some quick cutting sufficed.

A seat cushion has many layers... I'm hoping this onion ends up more like a parfait

Next I started stacking the pieces and grabbed my staple gun. I had 3/8" staples, which worked fine. I had to hammer some down but they were long enough to hold the bigger folds of fabric on the seat corners.

Luckily I had experience stretching canvases for painting, when I was a broke art student. The concept is the same: staple the midpoint of one side of the fabric, then the opposite side, pulling so the fabric is reasonably taut. Repeat on the remaining 2 sides. Inspect your work - is anything askew? If so, rip out the staples and try again. If not, continue by adding another staple on opposing sides again. Doing this piecemeal ensures that you do not yank the fabric too far to one side, which could cause buckling or a cockeyed pattern - or worse yet, you might find you did not leave enough fabric to cover the last side.

Stapling alternating sides is key

The hardest part of the stapling was squeezing the staple gun's trigger. I'm not a tiny person and I am strong, but my hands took a beating and are currently throbbing a bit. If you have a helper, you can use both of your hands to squeeze - but the person holding the fabric needs to be very trusting when you come near!

Corners have way too much bulk and need to be trimmed

After the first chair or two, I got a sense for how much fabric I could remove on the corners so they would fold over neatly. Or neatly enough - corners are tough. The fabric needs to be pulled, tucked and stapled simultaneously. Of course, any failed attempts can be easily re-tried.

When all the stapling is done, the underside may not be perfect but it'll be hidden

It was so satisfying to see something that looked like real cushion emerge.

With new foam and batting, this cushion is much more robust than before

Next I put this cushion face down on the dining room table and flipped the chair over on top of it. I wanted to finish one chair completely before moving on to the others.

I suddenly wondered how to screw the cushion back on. Will the screws line up? Do I screw them right through the fabric? Not having a better idea, I tried to line up the cushion to the frame, then started with the first screw. It went right in, through the fabric and grabbed. This was actually the easiest step. Finding a replacement for a missing screw wasn't fun, but I found something workable.

Last step was to scotchgaurd the fabric, a must for people with kids or pets. I hauled all 6 chairs outside and sprayed them down, then left them for awhile.

Now that the chairs are back in I can finally see how they look in action, around the table.

Love the chairs... now I've got to do something about the worn finish on our table

Costs:
$50 for roll of foam
$15 for batting
Fabric might have been $8/yard on sale? (It's been a long time).

Time to complete: approximately 3 hours

New fabric on 80s chair (winter 2011)

Fabric that seemed good for a novice like me - such a busy pattern I did not need to line it up!

I've never reupholstered anything before. I've seen my Mom do many chairs and sofas over the years, even assisted as a kid (holding fabric in place, passing tacks, etc.). Despite that exposure, I was always intimidated. But when this dated chair's fabric pretty much disintegrated on us, I thought perhaps I could give it new life... 

Chair that ended up in my house (not my choice but super-comfy)

I took off an hour or so early from work one day, so I could squeeze in some time before the kids got home from school. I'd seen a Calico Corners nearby with beautiful fabric in the window.  I walked in feeling very inexperienced and awkward. But the sales associate who helped me was down to earth and pointed me to a sales rack with indoor/outdoor fabric. We 'guesstimated' what it would take -- the details are hazy at this point but I think I bought 4 or 5 yards at about $7/yard.

Before

After

When I got home I got right to work. I treated the fabric like wrapping paper -- because the cushions were easily removed, I laid each on the fabric, did a trial wrap, and then cut it. As usual I didn't follow the old adage, 'measure twice, cut once'. That's for people that read instructions. And possibly those who buy full-price fabric or are covering more exotic furniture? Anyway, I used safety pins to keep the folded fabric in place, then stopped and ran to get the kids.

Indoor-outdoor fabric cleans it up ('Ring Toss' from Calico Corners)

That night, after putting the kids to bed, I started stitching. I learned that a curved needle is essential -- I hadn't sewn a cushion before and hadn't realized that you really can't pinch the fabric enough to get the needle in one side and out the other... the curved needle was a breeze. I remembered from my childhood that you need extra-strong thread for upholstery. The two cushions were completed pretty quickly... then I had to get the arms covered. Those had seen the worse wear. They were a sort of j-shaped insert that slid easily off. I used a staple gun to attach the fabric to the inner edge. If you've ever stretched a canvas for an art class, it's the same process.


Lessons learned: if the new fabric was a bit thinner, I'd probably have needed to either remove the old fabric or cover it with batting so the striped pattern wouldn't show through. Also, I didn't fuss with a zipper -- just figured if this got destroyed I could go pick out some different fabric on the sale rack on another day. And of course a chair that didn't have detachable cushions would have been a much more difficult undertaking.


Total time: part of a day
Cost: approx. $35