Chair Affair

Anyone familiar with the children's story If You Give a Mouse a Cookie will understand why, now that the living room has been painted, it is necessary to change the curtains, artwork and also the upholstery on my grandmother's chair. Once one thing changes it's like a domino effect; everything else looks drab and dull in comparison and on it goes. The curtains were easy and I'm sure we have enough pictures around the house that we can shuffle them around and find some that complement our new decor.

My grandmother's chair was the biggest hurdle. Not wanting to pay several hundred dollars (or wait a month) to have a professional re-upholster it, I decided to give it a try. From what I'd read it's a pain in the neck but with a little elbow grease, some sewing skills and ingenuity along with a screwdriver, staple gun and new fabric shouldn't be something I can't can't handle.

First, the undressing of the chair frame:

Cushion removed to show the base of the chair.
Gracie getting one last scratch on the old fabric.

Evidence of a few other scratches, but nobody was willing to claim responsibility. We won't be having any more of that on the new chair, girls!

*insert striptease music here*

I wanted to take a lot of photos during the removal process so I'd remember in what order to put things back together. I had to be careful taking off the old upholstery so I didn't rip it because I was going to use pieces as templates from which to cut the new fabric.

The demolition only took one afternoon. There were about 10,000 tacks holding all the batting and fabric in place, but finally they were all out. Now the fun begins!