Reupholstering Chairs I bought for $20 or how to stay calm when you have bitten off more than you can chew

A few times a week while walking my dog I pass by and to peep in the window at the Goodwill store.  They are always getting in new things and normally don't last a day there.  One weekend morning I passed by to see two chairs each marked $20 that were in my favorite style, mid-century modern.  I also like to call it Brady Bunch Style.  I quickly went home to talk to the hubby about the chairs and that we needed to hurry and get them before they are gone.  I explained to him that they needed to be reupholstered but that we can probably just get them done by an upholsterer.  So we drove the two blocks in my Subaru Outback to go pick up the chairs.  The hubby agreed when he saw them that he liked the style too.  So we proceeded to purchase them.  When the woman rang us up the price came out to $20.  In effort to not steal from the Goodwill and be struck down by lightening for doing so I said to her, "you know there are two chairs we are taking?" She replied, "all furniture is always %50 off the price."  I paused for a second and just reveled in the feeling of glee.  We loaded the chairs in to my Subaru (god I love that car) and headed home.  Hubby's one condition was that the chairs be brought straight to the upholstery person and left in my car until then.  "Sure, sure" I said, but was really thinking "I'll say anything for you to help me get these in my car, we'll talk about next steps later dude." Come on ladies you know you do this too.

So I know you know what happened next...the chairs stayed in my car for two weeks.  After researching the cost of material and then labor I estimated that if I brought the chairs to someone they would 1. WAY overestimate the amount of fabric needed and 2. Ruin my story of how I got both chairs for $20 and got them covered really cheap too.  I looked up how to re-upholster chairs on youtube and came across a fantastic site that maid it look so simple in my brain.  So my lunacy took over and I decided to do them myself.  I told people my plan which they had thousands of questions of how I planned on doing this.  It was simple, relax and only do one step and call it quits for the

day and resist the urge to complete the project in a day.  Well, thats what I said.  The truth is I paced in one place for about 15 minutes straight before I started to conquer each task and then I'd get to it.

I shopped fabric stores and websites for a few weeks until I came across a site that was also owned by the same company that had the How To video on YouTube (www.diyupholsterysupply.com).  They offered free samples...what a great offer!  I picked out about 4 fabric and received them about 5 days later.  The one I fell in love with was $25 per yard teal velvet and the fabric that came in second place was only $8 per yard retro print fabric.  So $8 dollar per yard fabric it was!  I measured all the sides of one chair and the removable cushion giving an extra foot for each dimension.  Added it all up and multiplied it by two chairs and that is how I figured how many yards I needed.  I received the large roll of fabric one week later(the shipping was pretty cheap by the way).

 

I purchased a heavy duty box cutter, an electric stapler from Lowes, already had pliers, flat head screw driver and a hammer in the house.  I began to slowly take apart the chair paying attention to each detail as to how it was upholstered in the beginning.  I would say thats how I really learned how this project would need to be done.  After the chairs original fabric was mostly off with all stray old staples removed I began measuring to do the arms, cutting double the amount for the next chair.  I re-batted/added batting to where it need it and then wrapped the chair like I was wrapping a gift but with a electric staple gun.  The electric staple gun was the hero in all of this.  I replaced the removable cushions with new foam and continued to measure, cut and wrap the rest of the chair until it was done.  In total it took 2 months, because of summer vacations and shenanigans in between it was hard to find a hour to put aside to work on the chairs.  If I had to total up the hours it probably took me 6 hours for one chair and for material & supplies cost for both about $120.  Now, I'm feeling the pressure because I need to get the next one done before the Hubby's Birthday party in November, OY VEY.  Who wants to come over to disassemble the other chair for me??