Before & After: A 1930s Accent Chair Gets a Patterned Pick-me-up
Christina loves stumbling on old furniture gems and breathing new life into them. She found this chair with lots of potential on Craigslist, and knew its great shape was worthy of a makeover. She chose a punchy and patterned fabric to give it some personality!
From Christina:
Once I took it apart, I realized it had to be from the ‘30s or ‘40s based on the straw and horse hair stuffing. I took out all the old stuffing, left the seat springs that were in perfect shape, and recovered the seat and back with new foam and batting.
I found the perfect fabric that literally jumped out at me while walking throughout the garment district in downtown Los Angeles (the roll of fabric actually fell at my feet!) Because I used a heavy flocked vinyl, and didn’t want to see a bulky front fold on the seat, I decided to sew the front two seams of the seat. This was NOT easy! I had to sew and resew several times to get the seams just right. Once I got the seat and back covered I finished the back of the chair with mat black nail heads.
The rusty chrome frame needed some love too, so I used a combo of steel wool, and a trick of crumbled aluminum foil dipped in water for the really rusty areas. I finished off the chair by sanding and adding a few coats of polycrylic to the arm rests. The end result is prefect and I couldn’t be happier!
You can see this chair and more of her transformations on Christina’s Etsy store.
Thank you Christina!