(Ugly Duckling) Chair Progress- Tutorial #1

Seeeee...I am working on it:

:)

I have to admit, this chair is the biggest pain in the you-know-what. Whoever made it must have thought that staples were the best thing ever invented...that, or they were testing out (and having a lot of fun with) their staple gun.

So Im at a few hundred staples and counting, but Im almost there. Yippee! Then comes the fun part of choosing a fabric to reupholster with.

Im going to give you a few separate tutorials on how to re-do a chair like this. I have to let you know that this is not an easy project- definitely the hardest one Ive done yet. It takes a lot of patience and time. There may have been a few times when I wanted to throw the chair out the window, but we wont talk about those ;)

So here's how to begin (and dont forget to take pictures of everything as you go, so you remember what the chair looked like to begin with!):

You'll need (for Tutorial Part 1):

- Camera

- Scissors

- Flat Head Screwdriver

- Plyers

- A LOT of patience

1. Take of the main cushions that are sitting on the chair and set aside (easy peasy).

2. Remove the screws underneath the seat to release the lower cushion.:

3. Slowly take apart the seat base.You want to save all of the fabric as you go, since it will become your template for the new fabric you choose for the chair:

4. The seat is now off the chair, but we need remove the fabric from the seat. Begin removing all of the staples from the seat. The staple removing will take you the longest and can be most time consuming part of the process. I used a flat head screwdriver to pull up the staples and then a pair of plyers to remove them completely.


5. Take your seat and turn it over. Use the screwdriver to pull up the old fabric and loosen some of the staples on the seat. Then use your plyers to pull the old staples out:
 

6. Once you have removed the staples from the seat, slowly pull off the fabric as you go, as you want to save this fabric for later, to use as a template.

7. After you have finished that, we will need to start working on taking the back cushion off the chair frame. Again, you want to save as much of this fabric as you can, so that you can use it for a template later on. Use the same process as before. Using your screwdriver to pull up the staples, and then using your plyers to pull them out completely:

8. Once you have your back cushion off the chair it may look simlar to this (upside down):

You will want to save this for later, if you plan on using the fabric covered buttons on the chair again, and if not, for a template.

Your chair will now look like this:

Main cushion off, main seat off and back cushion off. Now to remove the back padding of the chair (this part has taken me the longest so far).

9. Begin by loosening the staples again. Again, save as much fabric as you can without ripping it too much. Dont worry about saving the piping around the edges. You'll have to make new piping (which I will give you a tutorial on later) to match your new fabric choice.

10. Use your plyers to get under the staples and remove them. Try not to damage the wood too much, especially if you plan on staining the chair:

After this stage is complete, you are working with your empty frame, and can begin working on the frame itself.

I have decided on staining my chair, rather than painting it, and going with a light coloured fabric. 

In the next tutorial, I will show you my empty frame (Im almost there!) and the next step :)

Thanks for bearing with me on this one, its a tough (but hopefully rewarding) project!

Ugly Duckling Chair...again...

Do you guys remember this post about my  "ugly duckling chair", I blogged about a while back? Ok so, about that chair....its been sitting in my basement...waiting. Waiting for me to finish it. The deal? Im sooo hoping the other 200+ staples will remove themselves and I wont have to do that again :(

The likelyhood of that? 0%.

We've been running around like crazy people with projects all over the place (currently, we are still in the depths of our backyard jungle make-over) and the chair took a back-seat (no pun intended) in terms of proiority projects.

However, last night our town was under a strong tornado warning, and of course I convinced Ian that going down to the basement was absolutely necessary. Nevermind the fact that I actually packed up water, food, clothes, shoes, and other supplies...just in CASE a tornado actually hit. Ian thought I was crazy...until he brought his toothbrush and a pair of underwear over to me and asked me to pack it too :) For those of you still thinking Im crazy, a tornado did actually hit a town about 2 hours away from us on Sunday, without warning, and caused devastating damage.)

Anyho, while we sat in our basement (quite comfortably actually since we were so prepared-lol), I saw the chair out of the corner of my eye. Sitting there. Waiting to be finished.

I swore that if we survived the tornado, I would finish it. So here I am people....planning on working on that chair this weekend.

Here's what my chair looks like again:

I do have some inspiration that Ive been using to motivate me:

Here's one re-done by Oh Brooke:

Amazing job, and the chair frame looks quite similar to mine. Im still debating on whether or not I should paint the frame white...but this project convinces me! You can read all about how she did it here.

Mandi at Vintage Revivals has done an incredible job with this cane back chair. I love her blog and she is such a big inspiration to me in so many ways. The room she put this chair in, is incredible too! Here's the chair:

and to see the rest of the room click here. Amazeballs.

Some other inspiration:

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Have you ever re-done a chair like this? If so, what was your inspiration?

:)

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