Projects - I Tackled Another One

I guess this might be another Domino Effect situation. 

When my Granny passed, she stipulated that her stuff could be given away but not sold. So, as my Mama and Aunt Mary went through Granny's estate, they took some furniture and various items home with them and gave some to relatives. One of the things I was given is a wingback chair. It is super-comfy and in its day was a really fancy chair I guess.

When I got the chair, it was already a bit faded and somewhat dated. The flamestich print in beige, light blue, and a pinky mauve had fit perfectly in Granny's house back in the late 1980s. It didn't clash with anything in our house, it just looked a little dated. I didn't care so much, though. I was just glad to get a comfy chair that had been my Granny's. I scooted it into our primary bedroom and it became a great place to read, watch the seasons change through the bay window, or just sit and relax.

In the twelve years that it has anchored the corner of our primary bedroom, it has been well-loved. I noticed a year or so ago that the piping had become threadbare and the cording was even peeking through in spots on the arm rests. So, when I located a good upholsterer during the Sofa Shuffle  and the domino effect of the ottoman update, I had a yen to also have this chair recovered as well. When the upholstery guy had the sofa, I began to think about what might look good as a new fabric for my Granny chair. I thought about using the remaining checked fabric from where I covered our dining chairs and I know it would have looked good dressed in that fabric. I even went digging through my fabric stash to get the checked fabric out and drape across the chair. That is when I found a piece of linen upholstery fabric that I had picked up years ago at Sirs Fabrics, a wonderful store that sold remnants and flat folds of fabrics at a discounted price. (The store burned in 2018 but was a regional staple for over fifty years.) I think I paid $1-2 per yard for the five-and-a-half yard piece of material. I saved it all these years not knowing what I would do with it but knowing that I love the print and the colors. 

I searched a fabric chart to see how much my Granny chair might need to have a new cover and saw that it would probably require seven yards. After thinking about it for a day or two, I decided that I would look online and see if I could be lucky enough to find a couple more yards. Soon, I was deep in online fabric store inventories searching. Finally, I took a photo and used Google Lens to search. Bingo! Several options popped up. The first one I saw offered a yard of the "vintage paisley" for a cost of $100. I kept scrolling. Finally, I found a two-yard piece for $40 and I quickly added it to my cart. The fabric arrived on the same day that the upholstery guy said the sofa could be picked up. So, I asked him if I could bring the chair and leave it with him. The Mister helped me load it up and off I dashed.

After a while, I got a message from the upholstery guy telling me that he needed another yard of fabric for the bottom of the chair cushion. So, I quickly went to Google Lens and searched again. I found a couple of yards that were listed at $20 per yard. So, I bought them, paid about the same amount to have it shipped to me and took the fabric to the upholstery guy. After a while, I got a message that the chair was ready for me to pick up. 

I trekked across town and picked up my Granny chair and when I got home, our grandson, Levi, helped me scoot it off the truck and into the primary bedroom. Again, the domino effect began...

A photo of my Granny chair made by the upholsterer at his shop

Another photo made by the upholsterer

I love the look of the chair from all angles. The fabric is really beautiful and the design has so much to look at and admire. Plus, the upholsterer did a wonderful job of centering and matching the pattern where it would enhance the chair. I sort of wish I had a place that I could just set it out in the middle of a room so that all the angles can be admired!

My Granny chair 'installed' in her space here at our home.

If you give a gal a newly upholstered chair, she's going to want to cover the stool beside it...

I looked at the scraps of fabric that the upholstery guy gave me and there was not a piece large enough for the footstool. Again, I searched the net for more fabric, found a reasonably priced yard, and ordered it. That piece of fabric came this past week. So, the next day I took it downstairs and pressed the creases and wrinkles away.

Then, I brought it upstairs and began to undress the footstool. The first step is to remove the staples holding the tired, dingy, sad fabric onto the stool. 

I like to use a screwdriver to pry the staples up out of the wood and pull them out with a pair of pliers. It is a bit tedious because there are a lot of staples and I didn't want to damage the wood bottom of the stool.

Once I had all the fabric removed, I laid the fabric out flat, right side down, onto the surface of our kitchen island. Then, I carefully laid the stool upside down onto the fabric lining it up to center it on the design. This is where the photo making stopped because I needed both hands to pull the fabric up around the stool and staple it to the bottom. At the corners, I folded the fabric much like the cover that was still on the foam was done. Then, I trimmed off the excess fabric. I wound up screwing three of the legs off of the stool to get a good close trim of the fabric. 

Now, my Granny chair has a mate that matches her beauty. I've used this stool with the chair for years. It was thrifted and had been a project fourteen years ago! So, to finally have the pair matched up, I feel is really an accomplishment. That corner of the primary bedroom is not only a comfy place to read, gaze out the bay window, or relax, it is also a bit of a jewel with the update. 

I could not be more pleased with the outcome and I think my Granny would like it as well.

The Domino Effect

Why is it that once we make a change in a room, other changes need to take place as well?

Around here we have experienced that sort of domino effect when it comes to furnishings. First, we had The Summer of Chairs where I was on the lookout and replaced almost all of our dining chairs. 

The chairs we had before - nice, serviceable, but not very comfortable.

Some of the new-to-us chairs that are sturdy and comfy.

The season changed but The Chair Project - Continued. Since there was two sets of chairs and they were similar but just enough different, Plus, the cane-backed chairs had two different seat covers and the urn-backed chair seats made there be three different seat covers. I needed there to be some cohesiveness and I guess I needed to put my stamp on the new purchase.

I had long admired chairs with a buffalo checked seat that I saw in blog posts and decorator books. So, I ordered some buffalo checked fabric in a neutral color. Then, spent a little time and a bit of muscle to cover them all.

I still smile when I walk through the house and see all of our new-to-us dining chairs. They are exactly what I have wanted for eons and the checked seats give them that finished, consistent, planned, southern look. I have them scattered all throughout the house and they look wonderful in every single room.

The next domino effect occurred when I picked up our new-to-us sofa from our family friend's estate. It looked a bit dated and didn't really fit in with our other furniture. So, this time, I contacted an upholsterer and had the sofa recovered. 

When I brought it home, we had the Sofa Shuffle.  I knew that new upholstery would really made it look refreshed and fit so much better with our other furniture. Well...except having that bold buffalo check on the sofa sort of conflicted with the ottoman that we use as a coffee table. Plus, the ottoman was sort of looking sad after eighteen years of use. So... the domino effect again.

Eighteen-year-old faded, thread-bare ottoman

I first thought about just making a slipcover for it. I ordered what I thought might be something similar to the striped fabric and the Mister let me know that he didn't think it would be appropriate. I stumbled across a grain sack type fabric and even began measuring and figuring out how I would stitch up the slipcover. Then, one day I was looking through some decorator books that I have here and noticed a different sort of fabric that I thought might let us keep the animal print but be somewhat more subtle and not fight with the checks on the sofa. I began searching online for fabric and found just what I thought would work. So, when I went to pick up the sofa, I dropped off the ottoman and fabric.

The cheetah print is almost exactly the same colors as the checked sofa. Yet, the print is such that it is still somewhat a neutral. Animal print - check. Neutral - check. Enhances the new-to-us sofa - check.

To me it is always surprising how a more modern fabric on an antique piece of furniture makes it look fresh and updated. All of this may have come as a result of the domino effect but every single bit of these updates, changes, and additions were fairly inexpensive. The fabrics for all of these pieces of furniture (chairs, sofa, and ottoman), the cost of upholstery work on the sofa and ottoman, and the cost of the thrifted chairs still totaled less than an new sofa or a new set of chairs. 

All of these pieces are quality pieces of furniture that are sturdy, well-made, and fairly classic styles. So, I think they will hold up well to our wear and tear and last us for many years to come. Sometimes it is like that children's book, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, and becomes a circular tale where one thing leads to another thing and you wind up right bac where you started. This time, though, I think the domino effect we have implemented will be something that leads to a longtime and lasting part of our household.