Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Recovering the Painful Dining Chairs

Last week I posted about my new project...recovering my dining chairs. Two weekends ago the project kicked by butt and I had to stop before I finished the other three chairs as I couldn't move. Stopping in the middle of project KILLED me. Once I get my mind set on something I spend every waking our doing it until it's finished, so that weekend was such a disappointment. Anyhow, I got right down to work Friday night when I got home last weekend.
This time I had a different plan of attack. Instead of doing one chair, start to finish, at a time, I did one step on the remaining three chairs at a time.
Here's the before and after...
I bought this dining set about 3 years ago. It is beautiful and I've used it to sit and have dinner with company a total of about 5 times. However, they were FILTHY! All the cushions looked like they have been spilled, spit, and sh%& on. Granted they were off-white; Very pretty, but off-white. So I needed to do something.
Here are my trusty tools. I spent last Saturday asking everyone I could think of if they owned a staple gun. No one did. Before going out to buy one, I stopped in a tool box my dad had made for me to get out the tape measure and low and behold, I HAD ONE!

After unscrewing 8 screws per cushion, I removed the cushion from the chair. Please notice the million staples that I had to remove with a screwdriver and pliers. That was just firs layer. After removing the black mesh cover, I then had to unstaple the piping which was a whole other layer.

Here is what was removed from ONE CHAIR! Look at all those staples. I left the last layer of material on, not wanting to remove anymore staples.

After taking out a million staples, I then had to put in a million more around the new fabric.

Then a million more around the black mesh cover.
Two days later. Here is the finished product. It was dark and the flash was making the photos a bit distorted. The chairs look pink, but they really aren't they are a light and dark wine color.


The next day, here is the whole dining set.


Here it is up close.
Here is the whole set again from the other side.

I love my "new" chairs. I hope they last longer because I don't want to do THAT again. If you are thinking about doing it, it wasn't complicated, just hard work.

12 comments:

  1. I love the new look! It's hard work, but worth it.

    I used to do mine every couple of years, usually adding a layer of "fluff" lol. It sure does make you feel like you have a new dining room set though!

    Now you have to cover them with plastic before you invite any slobs over. :))

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  2. Lovely...any chance you'll do mine for me? :)

    I hope Grandma J isn't referring to me and Jason!

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  3. I love the way they turned out! I have wanted to try this, but I don't actually have any chairs/furniture that have cushions ...so I will have to wait.

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  4. They look awesome! I have never done something like that. I don't think I will have to since I don't have a dining room set. Or any chairs with cushions for that matter. I make people sit on hard wood when they come over. Cause I am mean like that! How many more days of school Pumpkin?

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  5. They look great. Good job!

    Now, whoever these people are that are getting your chairs so nasty, you need to talk to them.

    Did you get tired of your rug?

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  6. Redoing mine was easy. I bough the fabric and handed it to my husband. I guess I should appreciate his effort more after looking at what you did!

    It looks great.

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  7. I see your thinking in going with colours of light and dark wine.

    But regarding the origin of a certain stain you mentioned, perhaps you can take it as a compliment... your guests were having such a good time they shit themselves laughing.

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  8. The chairs are beautiful! What a great job you did!! Nice work! I'm stopping over at the suggestion of a mutual friend Jason. :) Well, I just sorta know him via blogging. Anyway, very well done on the chairs!

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  9. We just did ours a few months ago. We also had off white, which really doesn't go with two boys. We just put our material right over the old one. A tip I got from Sue. Also, we have a staple gun, fyi. Enjoy the new chairs.

    Lisa

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  10. Very cool! I loe your floors too!
    M

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  11. Great job on the cushions. At least you didn't have to refinish the chairs as well. What's the next project?

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  12. They're beautiful, I love the new color.

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