Wing Back Chair Reupholstered

Hey Everyone!  When we started redoing the bedroom we had a serious problem.  What do we do with our clothes we're not finished with.  Like our PJ's, loungwear, half worn pants, etc.  We considered a coat rack.  Since Josh has a phobia of putting PJ's underneath his pillow, we had to come up with something else.  Since we've sold the bedroom set, the bedroom seemed a bit empty.  When you first walked into the bedroom all you saw was a blank space.  Now there's something quite different!

We picked up this wing back chair from Craigslist for $25.


I started pulling it apart with a flat head screwdriver and needle nose pliers.  Shortly later I figured out that it's been reupholstered 3 times.  Underneath the blue granny smelling fabric was green and red smoke smelling fabric, batting, and foam.  The batting was falling apart, and there was two more layers of fabric to get through.  After an hour I started cutting with a utility knife.  I went to Joann's and used a coupon to get a heavy duty staple remover.  After a few days the 40 million staples were all removed.  I took everything outside and cleaned the wood with an ammonia/water combo, febreezed the backing and the cushion, and then set it out in the sunlight.  It took most of the smell away from foam and made it all nice and clean!

Next up was refoaming the chair.  I used a full size egg crate mattress pad to act as my foam.  It worked great and came together nicely!


Then started the long process of reupholstering.  I ironed my fabric a section at a time.  I started with the wings of the chair.  I kind of fudged my way through it.  Many people say to take apart your original upholstery and save it as a pattern.  A) That would be massively time consuming B) I wasn't going for the same look and C) What a pain!  In the end I purchased a total of 8 3/4 yrds of fabric for this whole chair.  I have plenty to spare.  I may end up making some small pillows for the bed to match the chair.  

To reupholster I would start out by anchoring a piece of the fabric in the back.


Then I would work my fabric to wrap around the wing.  For the top of the wing I stapled here.


Then folded my fabric back to cover it back up.  The arms I draped over and pulled down to staple.


After about 3 hours the body of the chair was done.


At this point I had gone through 5 yards of fabric with minimal amounts left and I needed more.  I luckily found more at Joann's and got to work finishing it.  This weekend I sewed the seat cushion.  It luckily fit pretty snuggly and didn't need any adjustments.  I wrapped the fabric around the cushions that I had traced and adjusted from the originals for the ends of the arms.


I put the back on.  It's not pretty by any means, but who's going to see it?  Nobody!  I also tightened up underneath with more fabric and viola, it was done!  What do you think?


 


It was a massive project, but a very rewarding one.  Now we have a place to throw our clothes!  Just kidding!

Have fun!



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