Before & After: Danish Chair Goes Back in Time
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(Image credit: Lisa)
This vintage Danish chair didn’t make it through the ’90s unscathed, yet Lisa saw past its poor choice in upholstery and restored it with a more period appropriate style.
(Image credit: Lisa)
From Lisa:
I recently got this Danish modern lounge chair as a partial trade for something I was selling on Craigslist. It had been re-upholstered in a fabric that was not period appropriate, and it was missing two buttons, but I saw potential. The frame and webbing were solid, and the cushions were in good shape, and so I decided to give it a makeover.
I chose a charcoal grey wool fabric (Maharam Divina Melange by Kvadrat in the 170 colorway) that better suited the period. I found a great deal on it at modernfabrics.com, a site I had learned about on Apartment Therapy. The fabric really sews like a dream, and I highly recommend it for seating. I added a dacron wrap to the existing cushions, used the existing cushion covers as a pattern, and gave the wood a coat of Howard’s Restor-a-finish. This project cost me only $95 (for welting, thread, zippers, and 3 yards of fabric), since I already had the dacron, restor-a-finish, and welting foot for my sewing machine.
I happened to have an old ottoman lying around that I had intended to reupholster for another project, so I finished it to match using the same button tufting and a similar stain on the legs. While it’s not a perfect match to the chair, it fits our needs for the reading nook in our living room and didn’t cost me anything, since I had extra fabric, stain, etc.
I had previously taken an upholstery course at a community college, so this was a very easy project for me, and the chair now fits much better in our home’s color scheme.
Thank you, Lisa!