The Chair Project - Continued

The Summer of Chairs may have ended according to the calendar which now says it is fall - even though the temperatures don't really uphold my idea of what fall is like. However, the chair project has continued. I discovered that I clearly had a thing for checked chairs. So many of the images I've saved include a shot of a checked chair. I kind of landed on selecting just the right checked fabric for all my chairs. In my mind this would make them cohesive and allow me to park them anywhere within our house. 

Since my chair mission would not be complete until all of the seat covers were the same, I began perusing online fabric stores for a checked fabric that would tie them all together. My thoughts were that I should use either a blue and white or a tan and white check. I cruised back through my saved images of chairs and decided that the tan and white check really did seem the most neutral and would fit with any room in our house. Plus, if I decided to change color schemes or placement of a chair, it would still blend. So, I figured up yardage requirements and ordered a tan and white check fabric. Ironically, the fabric purchase cost more than either set of chairs! 

Chair on left did have navy seat and chair on right had striped seat

To cover them, I simply measured and cut a width of fabric. For the urn backed chairs, I could cut the width of fabric in half. Then, I turned each chair upside down with the seat resting on the kitchen island. I loosened the four screws and removed the seat. Then, I set the chair frame aside. I wrapped the check fabric around the seat cushion. Since the cover that was already there is still in good shape and clean, I didn't even remove it. I just stapled the new fabric atop the cover that was already there. 

A before set between two afters

Changing out the seat covers was a relatively simple job. However, it is one that I broke up over several days because all of the pulling and holding and stapling was a bit tough on my old arthritic hands. I found that after wrestling with just a few, my hands and forearms would start to ache. I was using muscles with the screwdriver to remove the seat and gripping with my hands to pull the fabric taut and staple and I had not done that kind of thing in years.

By no means is the new upholstery job professional and perfect. However, it is smooth and fairly straight and I am in love with the new look. It really feels like a planned and coordinated grouping. All the chairs are nice and are sturdy and made by a reputable company. They are all matching. Plus, all fourteen new chairs and the fabric to cover the seats, as well as the splurge of a new electric staple gun cost less than this one chair or this one would, if I had bought it new. (I don't recall what I paid for the white chairs several years ago but they were a second-hand bargain as well.) 

Arm chair in one of the bedrooms

Like I had hoped, the tan check seems to be a neutral that fits anywhere in our house. The photo above is in a room with cream walls, maple bedroom furniture, and a green and blue quilt setting the color scheme. The other arm chair is in the primary bedroom with light blue walls, darker furniture, and a blue and ecru color scheme. Yet, both seem to fit in nicely.  

I'm hoping for a day in the near future that has a point that is not breezy so that I can set the chairs out on the back porch and give the seats a good coating with spray Scotch Guard to protect them a bit from spills, and drips, and drops. The spray coating protected some other chair seats pretty well. So, I will give these that extra protection as well. 

Our eat-in kitchen with some cheerful afternoon sun streaming in. 

I don't know about anybody else, but completing a project just seems to make me smile for days. The dining chair project has been a long and ongoing one but I can whole-heartedly say that I am so pleased at where we are with it right now that I feel full satisfaction. I think that is probably a rarity for most of us who are home-owners - to have a project that seems complete and provides complete satisfaction. I don't foresee wanting or needing a change for our household in regard to dining chairs for a long, long time! Something that isn't always the case for me is a project that really comes to fruition just as I envisioned in my mind's eye. These chairs really have, though; so, a big fat check mark can go beside that project that has been on my to-do list for quite some time.