I was totally pretending here...

Have you ever pretended to be something you're not? Like maybe you pretended you needed glasses in elementary school by totally screwing up those little 'E' tests on purpose or maybe you dressed as a nun for Halloween (give it up, we know you're a slut girlfriend). Well, this last project I pretended I knew what the heck I was doing with a staple gun, 3" foam and scissors, oh and a glue gun. I took many pictures through this re-upholstery project because I just had to stop and laugh at myself like every 5 minutes because I had no idea what I was doing!


We all remember how this chair started out:

Before - pretty drab and smelly	Oh, this is why it's smelly I guess
This is most likely when I went "oh *#&)!"	There was no turning back though...

Yeah, pretty, I know. I should have just cut my losses here and taken this chair back to Goodwill...

But I decided to venture on, this would be a learning experience and hey, maybe the outcome wouldn't be so bad. (Little did I know how expensive the outcome was going to be though...)

So here is the chair in progress:

I covered the springs with some fabric...	Then added 3" foam....
Then covered it all with batting....	Thank you Dad for purchasing this for yourself :)

Imagine each time a picture is taken, I'm laughing at myself going "Okay Traci, you have no clue what to do next...how about a few more staples?"

I used 3" foam on the bottom and back of this chair. Note to self: 3" foam is $40.99 a yard! And overestimating what you need in this case was a bad idea. More percise measurements next time. Please.  And then I covered it with some batting I found in the remnant bin at the fabric store. I was trying to save money anywhere I could since I flubbed up and bought the wrong staples first, which are nonreturnable since they were open (anyone have a use for wide crown staples?? ...just checking...no??) and underestimated the cost of foam...by a lot.

I had already cut out my fabric based on the fabric that I took off the chair. This was about mistake number 4. Since I used such thick foam on this chair, some of the cuts- 2 out of the 3 - were a little small. Another Note to Self: use something thinner for the back of the chair - unless you feel the need to sit straight up at all times, then this chair is going to be perfect for you!  I managed with the back of the top half of the chair, but the seat cushion fabric had to have some additional fabric sewed onto it to make it work. It worked okay and I'm not totally happy with that, but it was cheaper than another $17 for another yard of fabric.

I'll stop blabbing, that's not what you're here for (or are you??)....here's the finished project:

After - I just noticed I pretty much lined up the pattern from the back  to the seat!

Yeah, it's pretty impressive I think. Let me show you the back:

So glad hot glue is clear :) 

Since I wasn't sure exactly how to do the back, I folded over the fabric and hot glued it to the chair. Probably a sin in the re-upholstrey world, but I.don't.care. I was so ready to have this chair done, I didn't care WHAT I had to do to get it done.

How about a close up of that fabric?

Loved the pattern, so I paid way more then $2/yd for this...

Good stuff no? I'm enjoying the chair, it was a lot of work, I learned a lot of lessons from this and am already on the search for a new upholstery project!

I still have the small chair and shelves to do...is it sad that the smallest of the projects are still yet to be done? Or is that normal? You get so excited about the big stuff you just put the small stuff aside?? Someone once said "Don't sweat the small stuff"... I'll just be lucky if I don't sweat all over the small stuff, this was hard work :)