3 Wins and a Fail

Part of my job as the designer, contractor, job site foreman, and quality control manager was also to assemble rooms of furniture at the best price (that being as close to free as possible) with the most punch. Every room needed something, some more that others. I painted some furniture, repurposed some, and other things I had to upholster.

The couch and the love seat were done by my neighbor, but since she was busy with those, I was called upon to take care of the others. 3 worked out great, but one was a total fail.

Let's start with the loser. We found this great retro chair that was going to be Eddie's office chair. Great lines, kinda funky. Got it for a good price in Canton. "Can you recover it?" I was asked. "Sure, how hard can it be?" I answered. I've reupholstered before. I've done couches, cushions, slip covers for chairs, and headboards. No problemo. But wait...the funky lines we were so attracted to...yeah, also made it the devil. First off, all the little bars were covered in rust so I had to scrub. each. one. Then I stripped the vinyl off and covered the piping with the new vinyl. The seat was a breeze, but that armrest, that's another story. It was all curvy, bendy, and needed much more mental math than I was capable of doing. I kept trying to figure out a way to make it work, but after too many cuts, ran out of fabric. Who wanted that stupid old chair anyway? Turns out it didn't even fit under the desk so it would have been a waste of time to finish it. I'm the winner!!!

There will be no after picture.

Meg has a huge chair and a half that she got from a friend when she got married. It also has a huge ottoman with it. The ottoman didn't fit in the design plans and she needed a bench in her bedroom. We took the leftover curtains from the dining room in the Washington house (one set went on the bedroom windows) and covered the ottoman with it. I made piping with the hems and even made corner pleats. Ta-daa, bench for the end of the bed. It's not the best job in the world, but with free fabric and an already owned piece of furniture, I think we got the most bang for the buck on this one.

B had this great armless chair that Memaw had given him for his house. It was the first piece of furniture she bought when she got to the US. Lots of sentimental value, but his dog didn't know that and took couple of corners off. He let his sister use the chair and we recovered it. The old white vinyl is still under the fabric. I couldn't bear to take it off. The fabric was expensive, but it was a birthday gift, so didn't cost her anything. I did the whole chair without sewing a stitch. This baby was done completely by staple gun and upholstery tacks. Looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

And the fourth piece of furniture? It's that little foot stool in front of the chair. She already had it and I had enough fabric left (barely) to cover it. I didn't want any of the fabric to go to waste. All in all, a pretty good deal. All the "new" furniture she used cost her nothing. The only thing that cost her money was the stupid office chair. She bought it and the vinyl, along with the WD 40 and sandpaper and ended up not using it at all. Anyone want to buy a vintage, midcentury office chair, all cleaned and ready to cover?