Dining Room Chair Reupholster

I've wanted to reupholster my dining room chairs since we got them. Zac's parents graciously gave us their beautiful dining room furniture for our new house and gave us their blessing to reupholster the chairs if we wanted to. I didn't mind the fabric, but I was up for a project! It just took over a year to actually make that happen. Last summer my partner in crime, Morgan and I went fabric browsing only to come away with nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Today I kidnapped my mom and took her to Hancock Fabrics, where they happened to be having a half off sale on almost everything! Score! I intended to buy a floral or paisley print in a muted blue, or gray but look what I ended up with: yellow and white chevron print. I fell in love with the fabric instantly and knew it would be perfect. When asked, "But what about your curtains?" I responded with, "I don't love the curtains and they were cheap. I LOVE this fabric and can replace curtains easily." Easy peasy.

So, here's my simple directions on my very first reupholstering project ever.

Turn your chair over and remove screws from each corner

Close up of screw

My only materials: 1.875 yards of fabric @$9.98/yd, staple gun, scissors, flat head to remove old staples, philips to remove screws

The reason I reupholstered: stains, cat hair, outdated fabric from 1986.

Before

Goose loved jumping through the seatless chairs!

I laid out each seat on the uncut fabric so I could ensure I had enough. It was also a way to make sure the chevron pattern was aligned how I wanted to the seat.

I cut squares for each seat and just pulled one seat over to me at a time to staple. Leave approximately 3 inches on each side of the seat.

Start by pulling the fabric taut and stapling in the middle. Then staple the opposite side. Continue stapling in the middle, making sure to pull fabric taut each time. The corners are a little trickier, but there are a few variations depending on if you want creases, pleats, or a seamless finish. I attempted a seamless finish but ended up with creases, so clearly, I'm no expert.

For the most part, the fabric is lined up the way I wanted it. Whew!

After

Two out of the six chairs

So, what do you think!?

Living Room

View from the entry hall. I like how the rug is still the focal point in the room. The couches are from Zac's bachelor days and still serve their function, but we hope to get a sectional at some point. It's hard to want to buy a brand new couch with a baby, a dog who submissively pees, and two cats that have more hair than a wooly mammoth.

The two paintings that you can't see because of the glare (oops) are the inspiration for every color choice I make in the room. We got them off from a guy that was selling them on Congress a few weeks before we closed on our house. It was fun watching him make our art from spray paint!

These windows are so naked. Now that the walls are painted, I think I want white, flowy curtains from IKEA. Before I painted, I wanted "fake" stationary curtains set on each side of the windows.

The TV is in a hugely awkward nook above the fireplace. That being said, it serves a purpose by being completely out of reach for kids and animals. The fireplace is a strange, porous stone. That's all I know!

Here's the view from the kitchen (please ignore the mess from breakfast!).

In this light, the paint looks very silver. In actuality, it's bluer than I had wanted, but I love that it photographs so gray. I fell in love with Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage and had it matched at Sherwin Williams.

That HUGE, empty wall will soon have a table or dresser of some kind in the middle. On the dresser might be a lamp and a few accessories and the rest of the wall will be covered in photos.

We have a lot more to do in the living room, but having a painted room is such a great feeling of accomplishment. I love sitting in here and looking around at all of the hard work I did! I'm so fortunate to have such wonderful people in my life -- Morgan, a fellow teacher who I met while subbing over two years ago, motivated me into getting paint and taught me everything. She gave me confidence to conquer those pesky projects that I keep stored in the back of my mind. Next on my list to do is reupholster the dining room chairs, put up curtains, hang my photos, and buy/refinish a dresser.

We have paint!

I finally picked paint! Let's backtrack a bit... when we moved into our house in, er, 2009 I had large aspirations in decorating. For serious. Go look at the posts back in 2009. You'll see. Anyway, almost two years later and there's only one finished room, the nursery. And to be quite honest, I still haven't hung two owl hooks or Addie's wooden letters yet so technically I guess that room isn't finished either. Crap. But back to now.

After perusing countless blogs and forums and knowing my current obsession with gray (grey, greigh?) I picked a paint color. Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage (yes, I jumped on that bandwagon. What, you didn't know there was a bandwagon? Well there is. I'm on it.) Refusing to pay RH price, I went with my lovely friend Liz to Sherwin Williams where they matched it in their Cashmere line, in flat. I hate sheen. It's ugly. It looks outdated. Don't get shiny walls. Just, don't.

Not uncommon for me, I went about painting backwards. I chose the color first before deciding which room to paint. I really wanted to paint the master bedroom gray but ultimately chose the living room since I spend most of my time in here and this is the room people see upon entering our house. Also, it's the one room I'm trying so hard to decorate.

My marvelous Martha Stewertesque friend Morgan is coming over on Thursday for a painting party! I'll try to take pictures whilst painting so we can see before/during/after shots. Squeee!!