who's next?

Yesterday my upholstery course started again and I almost finished the chartreuse Saarinen chair so I have to bring a new project to class with me next Thursday. Here is a round of the chairs that are sitting in our basement and are waiting for a makeover. I think I can handle the orange chair by myself, as I would only have to wrap the fabric around the seat and back cushion, staple it in place and call it a day. Of the first chair I have three and thought I could upholster two in black leather and one with a colorful print. Marimekko , maybe? For the second chair I am not sure what fabric to pick. I still have enough of the chartreuse bouclé fabric to use on this chair. Chair number three also could possibly be a project I could tackle on my own. Argh, I am so indecisive but I think I have narrowed the choices down to the first two chairs. What do you think? Who's next in line for getting a makeover?

Are you having Monday (President's Day) off like me? What are your plans for the (long) weekend? I am planning to work on some house projects and also use a day to hang out on the couch to enjoy that we got free HBO for a couple of months. I hope you will enjoy your weekend too!

rocking around the christmas tree - eames rocking chair

If you have followed this blog for a while or my Instagram you already know that I have a thing for chairs. Most of the time I find them on the street but sometimes there are great bargains on Ebay as well. Back in September I snapped up an Eames upholstered armchair shell on ebay for 20 something bucks and knew right away I wanted to turn it into a rocking chair because I always dreamed about having a rocking chair for our home. The chair arrived in great condition, the fabric only has some minor wear and tear and the foam underneath is still in great shape. The only thing missing were legs or a rocker base. Of course I searched Ebay for that as well and bought a reproduction rocking base from Modern Conscience and once it arrived I assembled the beauty. Now the chair is living in our bedroom, which sometimes turns it into a catch all for clothes but we are working on keeping the chair clothes free. For the last photos I had to throw a sheepskin on the chair because everything looks better with a sheepskin on it and it feels so cozy sitting on one too.

I am looking forward to a long holiday weekend and a short week in between the holidays but I will be back blogging next week as usual...

Have a happy weekend!

 

woman vs chair - round 9

I did it! The chair is finished, I am sitting on it and writing this post. It is so comfortable but I might be biased after fighting with it for nine rounds. I'm even jumping for joy :) Can you believe that in mid-February the chair still looked like this?

Did you finish a project that made you really happy lately?

woman vs chair - round 8

Last week I managed to staple the seat cushion and some loose bits of fabric on the backrest. The only thing left to do is to add the finishing touches. First I will have to add a dust cover under the seat cushion which will hide the wood and cover the uneven edge of the fabric. Also I will be adding more grey fabric to the underside of the backrest, so all exposed parts will be covered. Can't wait to attach the legs and admire the finished chair...and of course sit in it.

woman vs chair - round 7

The last round was all about finishing the backside of the backrest. I used a flexible metal strip (ply grip) and stretched the fabric over the little teeth, trimmed the access and folded everything over. Than I gave it a little whack with a hammer to ensure everything was tightly folded over (as seen in the 5th photo). Next step is finishing the seat cushion and polishing the legs...

woman vs chair - round 6

Another successful round in the fight woman versus chair. Last Thursday I was able to start stapling the fabric for the backrest back onto the chair. It involved using a pneumatic staple gun. So much fun! Next Thursday I have to attach the fabric on the backside of the backrest with an invisible tack strip. Not sure what the professional name for this strip is but I will find out on Thursday. Hopefully I'll be able to work on the seat as well. Anyways the chair is coming together nicely...

woman vs chair - round 5

As mentioned in my previous post I lost the last round against my chair but my inner Tim Gunn was telling me to make it work. So I packed my sewing machine and drove over to a friends place and let her mom guide me through the sewing part. Under her guidance I pinned and sewed all the pieces together myself. Unfortunately we couldn't get the lower thread on my machine to work properly so we had to use her machine, I need to read the manual for my machine and figure it out later. Phew! I did it! And it wasn't even as hard as I thought. On Thursday I will start stapling the fabric back onto the chair and as long as I did my sewing correctly it should be smooth sailing from here. Guess I will find out on Thursday...

For the photos I just put the sewn fabric loosely over the plywood pieces just to give me an idea what the chair will look like once it is finished. It is not looking too bad actually. Can't wait to sit in it!

woman vs chair - round 4

The chair finally did it and knocked me out during last weeks class. I had trouble piecing the pieces back together because the lineup marks I made didn't line up. Weirdly enough they matched the original marks and the original pieces fit together perfectly. Argh! I guess it was because the old fabric was stretched out pretty badly. So last Thursday I only accomplished to pin the back and front pieces for the backrest together. If I'd been a contestant on Project Runway Heidi Klum would have sent me packing with her You're out! Auf Wiedersehen! But I had my trusty Tim Gunn (aka our upholstery instructor) at my side that kept telling me to make it work...So there is hope for the next round.

woman vs chair - round 3

My class last Thursday was actually pretty fun because I started to cut the new fabric I'm going to use to reupholster my chair. I cut out all the pieces needed and want to start pinning them together to start sewing. The first cut was pretty hard because I worried too much about wasting fabric but I ended up not even using half of the fabric I bought. There is enough left for a second chair, which I need to hunt down somewhere in the depths of the internet or our basement...

woman vs chair - round 2

I had my second upholstery class session last Thursday and glued some foam back to the backrest and also took apart the old fabric to create my pattern. The pattern part is a little bit scary to me and although I wanted to start with it right away after the class I chickened out. Argh, I need to get started tomorrow so I have at least a little bit of progress to show on Thursday. After Thursday hopefully it's time for sewing, by then the chair probably will gain strength and win at least one round...

woman vs chair - round 1

My upholstery class started on Thursday and I stripped my chair down to the bones. The foam underneath was rotten in some parts and crumbled right off the frame. Next step is taking apart the fabric cover and create a pattern for the new fabric. After that I have to start sewing the pieces back together, which will probably be the hardest part for me...

Update will follow next week!

woman vs chair

Tomorrow I will start my very first upholstery class and I am already super excited. 

I found the side chair by Eero Saarinen for Knoll a while back on ebay and was able to get it for a great price. It looks much better in photos than it does in real life. The fabric is stained and ripped in some places and it makes a crunchy sound when you sit on it. Wonder what kind of grossness I will discover when taking the old fabric off. The new fabric will be Knoll Classic Bouclé in the color smoke, another great ebay find. You can see a sample of it in the last picture. So far I have only spend about a quarter of what a brand new chair would cost and that is including the upholstery class, which will also come in handy for future projects. I probably have to pay the rest in blood, sweat and tears...

Will it be woman versus chair or chair versus woman? Either way let the battle begin...