The Ugly Chair

I had three big projects I wanted to accomplish before Chase arrived: do the nursery, do our guest room, and redo my ugly chair.

Our nursery turned out perfectly, the guest room is exactly right (pictures to come soon), and I ALMOST finished the ugly chair before Chase made his debut.

So ok. The ugly chair.

Last summer while yard saleing, I found this chair.  SO ugly.  But SO awesome.  It was in amazing condition, sturdy and incredibly comfortable.  and the best part - it was FREE.  I couldn't believe it.  I also knew that bringing it home meant a strong possibility that I might be spending the night on the couch... but I couldn't resist.  I'd always wanted to try my hand at reupholstering, and what better project than a free chair?

(It has a removable seat cushion, which I forgot to include when I took the "before" pics)

Aren't those lines gorgeous?  I saw so much possibility!

Well, then we moved. And then I got pregnant. And... well, I was about seven months pregnant before I finally tackled it.

And ohmygosh.  Lessons upon lessons learned from this chair.

My original plan was to reupholster.  But I needed five yards of fabric, plus piping, to redo it - and I just couldn't seem to find anything I loved in my budget.  So I started to explore other options.

First, I tried painting - yes, painting - the chair.  Well, actually, I tried the cushion first.  I followed this tutorial to give it a try - and, while it was a great idea in theory, it didn't work well on my chair.  That lovely Golden Harvest yellow just wouldn't be covered by any shade of paint!

Next, I tried dyeing the chair, using Rit dye in a spray bottle.  Also a good idea in theory, but the only color that would cover it was black.  I just wasn't sure I wanted the chair to be black, and I was also slightly concerned that the dye would rub off onto clothing.

So then I tried two different kinds of fabric spray paint, seen here and here.  Honestly, the black Tulip spray paint was great.  It covered really well (even on the velvet-like fabric), it wasn't ridiculously expensive, and it was an easy one-step-and-done kind of deal.  The other kind of spray paint was a little expensive - BUT... again with the black.  Black was seriously the only color I could get to cover it!  I just thought it would be too dark... so, full circle, I came back to reupholstering the chair.

After scoping out some sales and coupons, I found some perfect fabric at Joann's that I loved, but I needed to wait for it to go on sale... only to return to find that it was all sold out!  I was so bummed, but I wasn't sure if they would order it again, so I just chose some plain gray upholstery fabric and a white and gray piping.  I still wish I had done a patterned fabric, but it looks fine.

My mom volunteered to make the cushion cover :)

So, I'm extraordinarily proud of it, but I have to say I won't be doing any more reupholstering projects any time soon.  This was a leetle bit more complicated project than I expected!

But the best part?  When the chair was all done and Cole came down to see it and said: "MAMA, YOUR UGLY CHAIR ISN'T UGLY ANYMORE!"

Ok, it was worth it just for that! :)