AT reader Katzies was kind enough to take some before and after snaps of her chair reupholstering project and send them to us. We think the chair turned out absolutely beautiful, and the amazing thing is that Katzies had never upholstered anything before! Her secret (and after shot), after the jump!
From Katzies:
When working on a chair re-upholstery project, I relied on a book by Nicole Fulton titled "New Upholstery". The instructions from the book are clear enough for me to reupholster a chair with tufted buttons. And I never did upholstery before! I put the pictures of before, during and after here.
You can find simple upholstery tools at Fabric Outlet on Mission and 17th, and at Cushion Works on Mission and 18th.
Thanks, Katzies!
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Comments (33)
Wow....thats awesome work :)
Holy moly, congratulations on a job well done!
Oh my Gowd! BEAUTIFUL!
Top notch job!
What is that style called?with the buttons placed like so. Absolutely lovely!!
congrats... beautiful job!
Really nice.
Invite me over for a game of Boggle.
I love that chair! Awesome job!
Katzies, can you move to Virginia and open a shop?!? Please?!?
That chair is lovely! Excellent job!
Incredible! That's crazy skill.
Friends,
thank you! It was a project that I never wanted to end as every stage was done with so much anticipation. I did get some instructions and assistance with sanding and veneering the chair from a good friend who knows carpentry, so it was actually a common achievement.
I hope to share more projects in the future with you :). And thank you again for your kind comments!!
Katzies
ps: here's the link for detailed step-by-step process, as the link above seems broken:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28258939@N06/sets/72157605969829697/
theseroving eyes: should we plan for a boggle party? har har... :D, madampince: you can do it yourself! really!!
This is so inspiring! I just put that book on hold at my local library so that I can make way on the antique chair sitting in my bedroom.
Wow, amazing! Love that blue color next to the dark wood.
Lovely choice of fabric and color. Good taste is a wonderful thing.
Congratulations! You must be so proud!
How much did all the materials cost?
That's amazing for a first try! I think you have a gift! Looks great!
Wow, looks fabulous.
How many yards did you need for that?
What an amazing job - Good for you!
Roughly how long did it take to complete the job and what was the most difficult part?
Very nicely done.
I noticed there was piping on the chair. Did you find that ready made or did you have to make it yourself?
All, thank you for your kind comments.
Doogle: I don't have the exact count, but roughly it is about $ 150-ish, which includes around $ 60-ish for all the tools that I consider as investment and $ 70-ish for the fabric etc. I sourced the fabric, polyester batting and jute band from The Fabric Outlet in 17th and Mission during one of their 60 percent discount days. Then $ 20 for the stain and polyurethane layer. And oh, plus $ 15 for the chair.
Jenzoe: I bought about 4 yards of fabric, but that was 1 yard more than what I finally used.
Bepsf: I did it leisurely over a couple of months. I would take 1 or 1.5 or 2 hours break and worked on the chair to de-stress. The most difficult part is gluing the piping to the fabric by the chair's arm as you don't want to spill hot glue to your fabric, and pulling the thread to the chairs back when making the tufted buttons.
Reb: I sew the piping myself. It is not difficult. You just need a special foot for your sewing machine (a sewing store can tell you what foot to get for sewing piping) and a lot of patience to make sure your piping is sewn tightly.
Note: I found the old chair at Berkeley Urban Ore.
Zowie. I know this is your first upholstery, but do you do other crafty things too (sewing, etc?) In other words, are you insanely talented with all you touch, or is this something a klutz like me could do too?
Lisa: I only have rudimentary skill in sewing, enough to sew the piping. You won't know if you could do this until you do it. Nicole's book explains all the 'mysteries' behind doing upholstery and you could pick a simpler project for a start. One tip is to be patient enough to undo a mistake when you do it (I had to re-sand the whole chair because I did the staining wrong in the first place).
Ok. I have a chair I'd like to send you ;)
(kidding ,but not really)....
That type of button tufting is diamond tufting. There's also square tufting where buttons pulled down at the corners of symmetrical squares either sewn in to the top fabric or just pulled down tight. Sometimes it's called "biscuit" tufting. There's also tufting in the diamond shape, but no folds in the fabric. Folded diamonds are not hard after you do it a couple of times. This is a great job.
Amazing work. I am inspired by your willingness to tackle something so daunting.
I am in awe! I bought a great old chair for $15 today at my local thrift store for the same purpose....Now, what's this book eveyones talking about?? I think I will need it.
xoxo
opps...nevermind. Pays to actually read all of the entry.
Katzies what a great job!!! I am about to embark on a similar project of my own and finding it very difficult to find resources on how to fix up the chair itself ie how to rejuvenate the actual wood (plenty of resources on how to re-upholster though thankfully) - are you able to help (or anyone else!!) with details on what you did to restore the 'wood' part of the chair? I have 4 Louis XV armchairs that I am going to re-do to go with my dining table....
PS If anybody has any tips for me on where to get re-upholstery stuff from in Boston (cheap) ie tools, fabric, batting etc as I am new to this type of project as well as Boston!
Drop dad gorgeous! Furhter kudos for the Flicker page; you did a helluva job documenting your work.
If you'd care to pass on the advice on the "sanding and varnishing" -- or if anyone has a book recommendation -- I'd be eternally grateful...
Amazing.
Inspiring.
So very well documented.
Thank you for sharing.
Kellyw & Kushkush (and all AT readers).
Most likely by now you're done with your projects. But I thought I share with you what little I know about the sanding and varnishing.
I sanded the wood in three stages, using coarser sand paper first (no. 60) to get rid of older varnishing and polyurethane layer, then medium (no. 100), and finer (no. 180, or higher if you want). Sanding is very tedious, esp. when done by hand. Use mask when you sand.
After sanding, I stained the wood. Be careful not to overstir the stain, you want the stain to be transparent enough to let the wood grain shine through. Last part was varnishing using polyurethane. After the first layer dried overnight, I sanded it using very fine metal wool before putting the second, final layer.
I hope this helps.
Katzies.