Showing posts with label upholstering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label upholstering. Show all posts

Sunday, June 16, 2013

How to Reupholster a Chair FINISHED

 Here she is in all her finished glory....
To see all the steps of how I did it you can visit these other posts I did along the way....
 Her owner dropped off the trim to me last week and actually already came and picked her up....
 The trim covers up all the staples and raw edge of the fabric 
 I usually end up trimming off a little more fabric in a few places to make sure it all gets hidden.....
 I am happy with how she turned out and more importantly her owner is happy with her!
 I even have a few photos of her in her "real" home at the end of the post....
 I was waiting until we had our Father's Day celebration to finish up the photos to post...

 This is her final home....
With a cozy bee pillow she looks right at home....
Always a big sigh when it's all wrapped up and done....
and I already have my next slipcover project in my basement...

Monday, June 10, 2013

How to Reupholster a Chair part 5



This is the final piece of upholstering.  
I am making sure the squares on the seat line up with the squares on the front and back of the upper seat.  This is what I was talking about back when I was cutting out the fabric in Part 3....
And, depending on your fabric pattern, why you might need more fabric than you think....
Then I staple one or two times at the center front and center back...you should see a little bit of a crease in the fabric.  
Almost like you have pulled it too tight.  If it's smooth at this step the fabric will be too loose when you're done....
It's great to work with someone else for the pulling and stapling....
This is how I cut out around the arms.  You can try to use your old fabric as a pattern but I've found it's easier just to cut this out once I've got the fabric on the chair.
This usually involves me snipping a little then pulling it down where I want it to go and checking it then resnipping a little more and checking again...
Until I get it how I want it and it's all laying flat

This is the post at the back of the seat.  I usually stop cutting about 1-2" from the post.  This is just like clipping your curves while sewing.  If you sew you know that helps ease the fabric around corners and curves without it puckering up...
Since you have corners where there will be a pleat at the end anyways, start in the middle and staple out towards each corner.  Pulling/smoothing down towards the front and out towards the side at the same time.
Do the same on the sides.  After getting the arms/posts clipped I put one staple in the center of each side.  Then each arm is a stopping point, so work your way from that center staple out towards each arm...
Here she is all stapled and trimmed....
Here's the back all finished up and trimmed....
And here she is--  I'm just waiting on the trim to glue on over the staples/edge and she'll be ready to go back home in her new fabric.....

Thursday, June 6, 2013

How to Reupholster a Chair Part 4


The chair is actually finished and ready for trim but I was making freezer jam today from our strawberry picking last night so I'm still sorting through photos.  And trying to post them all in order.
I usually start with the upper part of the chair so you can lean on the bottom without worrying about the new fabric on the seat.

 This is the back of the upper seat. 
Already stapled on.  I was occupied with using the new stapler and forgot to take other photos of starting it...
 There was a thin layer of foam which I put back after I stapled the fabric on...
 I folded the fabric around it and tacked it in a few places here and there to hold it in place...
 Next was the thicker foam for the upper seat and the next layer of fabric....
 I usually do a staple in the center top, then center bottom, then center of each side to hold it all in place.  You want to really pull the fabric tight.  Not so much that you distort the pattern but the foam is going to give a little when someone sits in it.  Keep smoothing and pulling all the way around..
 I usually just keep dividing the space between the staples in half and working my way around. 
I trim mine with a razor knife.  Do this part slowly and take your time.  If you trim it too close to the staples it can come loose and that means a whole new piece of fabric.  But you have to be able to cover the staples and the excess fabric with the trim.
The upper portion and arms are all finished up here....
And ready for the final trim to hide all the staples....
I can't wait to see her all finished up!

Monday, June 3, 2013

How to Reupholster a Chair part 3

And here she is naked as a jay bird and ready for some new fabric....
and here is where I tried my old hand stapler, and two other staplers from Lowe's 
all unsuccessfully 
when I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy the beauty below...
 Ordered it from Amazon Saturday night and first thing this morning it was on my porch.  
I LOVE getting tools
It's amazing how much difference having the right tool for the job can make....
This is pneumatic so if you don't have a humongus air compressor sitting in your garage (like my husband does) you'd have to purchase a small one of those too.
I was running it at about 55 psi today...
 It's really easy to use.
Nice,small and fairly lightweight without being "cheap" feeling.
But no safety so that scares me a little bit mostly because of the two curious monkeys that are always with me.... 
 The only down side is ordering staples and not being able to buy them off the shelf.  But you get a box of 10,000 so that should last awhile....
 Here's the new fabric laid out with the old pieces as a pattern.
It's very important to remember that you need to add at least a good 3" or so all the way around.  The old pieces you pulled off have been trimmed down after they were attached to the chair.  
You have to be able to pull on it and stretch it really tight as you staple it on.
I was also trying to make sure that I matched the center of a square (in the fabric pattern) with the center of chair itself.  And match the back with the seat.  
(see Part 5 for photos explaining this)
Then each of the arm rests needed to match each other too.
This is something to keep in mind when ordering or purchasing your fabric.  If your pattern is stripes for example, you might need more fabric in order to make all parts of the chair have stripes running the same way.  

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

How to Reupholster a Chair Part 1

 This beauty belongs to a sweet, young lady I go to church with.  
She approached me awhile back about reupholstering it for her....
I'm a slow mover.   I have a bazillion projects going on with the Etsy shop and now our booth space...
And then there are two of these cute little "distractions" too...
You can tell my kids are no stranger to the camera.
 So this is BEFORE...It's in really great shape she just wanted a different fabric...
She picked out a large black& cream buffalo check and she's actually had the fabric for awhile too just never got around to getting it on the chair.
 So I thought I would do some more detailed photos of the whole process....

Because this chair is relatively new, there are staples everywhere not tacks....
And ALOT of glue....alot of glue...
 Today was slow going...
The staples are stuck in the glue which usually peels off but this stuff isn't moving.
And the fabric is a looser weave so I'm trying to save that as my pattern for the new fabric, but it's kind of just falling apart as I pull on it to get it off....
ALOT of these too....ALOT...
Which all get pried out with a small flat head screw driver or sometimes my tack lifter will fit but it seems to be a little large for these staples...
So today I got the fabric off of the seat itself and part of one of the small arm rests....
I'll keep plugging away and keep posting photos as I go.  This style of chair is a good way to start learning how to reupholster.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

How to Tuft furniture

 This leopard print beauty has been living with us for awhile now.  She has her own post here if you desperately need to know how she came to be with us....
I re-tufted the seat cushions today.
this is a good "before" photo...
She has a hard life with our two littles wallowing all over her, and the buttons have started to mysteriously work their way OFF of the couch...
I cannot for the life of me imagine how that is happening.....hmmmm
So while re-tufting these seat cushions I thought I'd share how I do it.... 
Supplies :
One large upholstery needle mine is 10" or 25.4cm
two fabric covered buttons one for each side
24" piece of linen or cotton thread
Thread a button onto the string and thread BOTH ends of the string through the eye of the needle...

Pass needle through the cushion...
This was actually the hardest part.  The foam can be really dense so these took some real effort....
Pull the needle all the way through to the other side of the cushion....
Pull the two pieces of thread all the way through the cushion, and remove the needle.....
Thread the second button on to ONE of the strings and then I pull the string to make a long and short side....
Take your long thread and make a slip knot around the short thread 
(my short thread is the straight piece in the center there)
I used to refer to this with my art students as a "pretzel" knot because it should look like a little pretzel as you pull it tighter....
Tighten that up as tight as possible around the short string...
This is what helps you get that nice deep tufting and if it's too loose the short string will keep slipping back instead of tightening up....
Pull on your short string until you get your button as tight as you want it....the idea of course is to have all your buttons the same depth into the cushions....
Finish it up with a regular double knot (the above photo twice) but you want to pull on that until it goes all the way underneath the button each time.
Snip it off right at the edge or even a little bit under the button.....
That's it...I thought I'd finish with a photo showing the difference between those I had re-tufted and those I hadn't (the two buttons on the back left)....
A pretty big difference in how they look and I was even able to readjust the cushions inside to straighten them back out too....
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