Adventures in Reupholstery (259-262/365)

So a couple of weeks ago I got it in my head that I reupholstery isn’t too hard. I want to reupholster the couch that I think my mother bought when I was four and is now in our TV room, but I thought starting with a couch might be a bit ambitious, so I decided to start with a chair. Perhaps starting with a wing chair wasn’t the absolute easiest way to start out, but I learned a lot.

Up until right before I finished, I thought pulling a bajillion staples out of the chair was the hardest part. I mean, it wasn’t easy. There were hundreds of staples in that chair. I spent hours pulling each one out individually, giving myself a blister in the meantime.

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It turns out though, that you don’t need too many tools to reupholster a chair. The most important ones are a flathead screwdriver and pliers to tear out all of those staples. Then a staple gun once you start putting it all back together and a rubber mallet for the final pieces of fabric.

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When I first started this, I thought I might try to take some shortcuts and not put all of the pieces back on. The original chair had lots of piping that I figured I could just leave out and it would be all well and good. Well…it looked weird. Also, I’m not that good at reupholstery yet, so the piping was key to hiding my mistakes.

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I was up late each night this week because I kept thinking, “I’m going to finish tonight”. I would get one or two pieces on, realize it was taking forever, and abandon it for another night. Thursday night I finished putting on the final bits of piping and the bottom cover before tackling the seat cushion. Apparently the seat cushion is really hard to do, so I quit mid-sewing to go to bed.

But tonight, in between frying up scallion pancakes for a hundred, I finished! It’s far from perfect, but I think it looks pretty good for a first try. I learned a lot during the process and I feel like I can tackle that couch now.

Also, this had to be a record for one of projects. From beginning to end in less than two weeks!

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