Look!: Chinese Mailbag Reupholstery Project

Trolling through our email we stumbled upon these great pics from Jeanine, who just started as one of our brand new Boston bloggers (she sent in this email in March!). It not only shows an impressive piece of work, we love the offbeat use of Chinese mailbags, which give these traditional chairs a much more contemporary look...

I wanted to show you my new favorite flea market chair upholstered with some canvas mailbags from China that I dissected. I'm taking an upholstery class and found these mailbags when it was time to look for fabric and they worked out perfectly! Oh yeah, the ottoman is upholstered in a gray bathmat..

Cheers and Happy Monday, Jeanine

Comments (15)

That's Groovy - I'd buy that chair from her!

Great, but looks upside down (admittedly I don't read Chinese...)

The fabric on the front of the backrest is upside down which totally ruined the effect. Sorry. Pet-peeve of mine, always seeing characters written upside down (especially tattoos).

I like the idea, and the front looks great. But those seams on the back view are poorly sewn.

I love it. I think the imperfections actually work in its favor.

Love it! I thought the placement of the fabric was intentional (even if you can't read the Chinese, the number at the bottom should clue one in to the usual orientation). I actually think this placement makes it more quirky and breaks up the writing, which is identical on both the back and seat of the chair. Very creative!
Ali

PS. The upside-down tattoo thing would bother me too, but this, no.

Speaking of Boston, when is the new blog going to be up? I'm moving there in a few weeks and will be in search of all the local design goodies.

I really love this chair.....Great idea

The chair is awesome. I understand there are a few perfectionists in the room, but I think for a first time effort this is just great. I also agree that the upside down writing on the seat front breaks up the monotony of the repetitve writing.

where exactly do you get a chinese mailbag?!

happy long weekend everyone! elizabethy, the chinese mailbag was from a store in Brookline Village called Pod-- I'm not sure if Julie has anymore, but she had quite a few last fall and I think she still gets them occasionally. jyw, I know what you mean about the back seams.. actually they are pretty well sewn but I didn't stretch them tightly enough! It was my first chair and I was just happy to learn and that it ended up looking pretty good! Ali and rreader are right, I put some letters upside down on purpose because otherwise the seat and back would have looked exactly the same. I flipped the back to break it up. Thanks!

Creative and casual. Way outside the box in such a good way. And as a recovering perfectionist, let me say, excellence (i.e. your chair) is much more interesting than "perfection".