Before & After: A Family Hand-Me-Down’s DIY Makeover
I think most of us have had the internal debate over a family hand-me-down. There’s a moment where we teeter on throwing it out because it doesn’t fit in our lives, but feel we should keep it out of a sense of loyalty or nostalgia. Trini made the best of the situation by saving her family’s chair, while updating it to suit her tastes.
From Trini:
This chair has been in my family for decades. It was passed down to me with blue flowered tapestry fabric. Although the chair was solid structurally, it did not go with any of our other furniture or decor. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money having it professionally re-upholstered. It was on its way to the garage sale pile, when I thought I’d take a stab at totally redoing it. I had the fabric, so the only cost was a can of black primer, some braiding for the trim and some time.
Working on the chair off and on, it took several weekends to deconstruct the padding, and remove about a thousand staples. I filled the holes with wood filler, sanded, primed and painted the frame. When it came time to attached the fabric, a pneumatic stapler would have been great, but I only had a utility stapler. Still it was a fun project and I’m pleased with the result.
Thank you, Trini!