Are you following me on Instagram? you totally should. I’ve been posting progress pictures of this beauty over the last few days. It’s still in progress, but I hope to be finishing it up this weekend depending on how well it goes. This is my first reupholster project – and I’m 100% in love. So far. As long as it turns out, if not, I’ll hate it.
So, step 1 of refinishing a piece. Find one! I picked up this beauty on the side of the road. I’m not kidding. It was Goodwill Bulk Pickup & I spotted it on our nightly walk around the block. I think my eyes got as big as bowling balls. I slow turned to Chad and he just shook his head. Long story short, I drove his van over to get it as soon as we got home & then kept it in the garage. For a year. I wish I were joking. It took me FOREVER to get up the nerve to take on this project. I bought fabric during a Black Friday sale when it was 60% off & after a year – I pulled it inside. Well, Chad did & had to take the door off the hinges to do so. This baby is BIG!
Okay, so literally I had NO IDEA what the heck to do, so I just took my tools and went to town. I knew I needed to take off each piece & use it as a stencil for the new piece. I read on an excellent blog that she used a sharpie and labeled each piece “back of chair”, “right arm” etc. GENIUS.
What you need:
Patience (like and hours and days worth)
Scissors/Pocket Knife
Band aids
Phillips Screwdriver
Pliers
I took pictures of every inch of the chair. I am a visual person & knew that when the chair was taken fully apart – It would be so much easier for me to put it back together if I had pictures of how everything lined up. Then started with the back and peeled off layer by layer. One staple at a time. I found it was easiest to use the phillips flathead to lift up the staple & then the pliers to twist and rip them out of the chair. OUCH. My hands definitely got a few blisters at the end of this process. It is HARD ripping all those staples out. I kept a bowl nearby and just plopped them in the bowl. Presley loved helping when she was awake and I attempted to work on the chair. I would drop the staples in her palm, and then she would drop it in the bowl. Teamwork & distraction at its finest!
I had no idea how many layers are on these things & the piping? I’m totally skipping that part when this goes back together. So layer by layer, organize, take it off. Take notes, pictures. THIS is the hardest part of redoing a chair. Pulling out hundreds of staples is so boring & takes muscles I didn’t know I had in my hands and forearms. But look at the endless possibilities of this naked baby:
We’ve got a guest coming in less than a week, so the race is on to finish this chair & to get this guest room back in decent shape. Uh Oh. Stop by later next week to see progress on the chair & make sure you are following me on Instagram for sneak peaks.
XO
[…] did you see my previous post about starting to reupholster a chair – the first step is to STRIP IT. Now, when that is done, you can start putting it back together. I decided since this was my […]