I’m tearing off it’s “clothes”!

A few months ago, I bought two of these chairs at a garage sale for $10 a piece. While the fabric didn’t go with my decor, they were very comfy and soft.

Dated fabric, but it was nice and soft and comfy.

At the time, I didn’t have $350 to re-upholster each of them, so at first I tried to cover them up.

The cover-up

And then, I decided that I would try more drastic measures. I painted them. Yep, PAINT. I used latex wall paint, acrylic paint and fabric medium. You can read about that process here.

Many coats of paint later...

While they looked okay, they were really scratchy. Almost like sandpaper against your skin. I did use a scrub brush and some fabric softener to make the arms a little less scratchy, and then I draped blankets on the back of them to make them a little more comfortable, but quite honestly, every time I looked at them, I cringed. Unfortunately, this house is a money pit, and there was always something more important to fix or replace, so they sat patiently and waited for their turn to feel beautiful again.

My other problem is that I wasn’t sure what colors I wanted in the living room/dining room area, so I wanted to make sure I had made up my mind. To be honest, that still hasn’t happened yet. My idea of how I wanted the living room to look has changed three times since we moved in. Just this week, we were able to sell the grey (gray?) sofa that was in our living room, after only having it a few months.

It was way too modern for the room...

We had to make room for the orange sofa when it is finally re-upholstered.

It's in the middle of being torn apart - well, obviously, not in this picture 🙂

It’s being re-upholstered in a white fabric, and the rest of the room is grey and black and white. Because I can’t seem to commit to one color as my “pop” of color, I am making the big pieces of furniture neutral, and I am going to use accessories and pillows for color. So, with the grey sofa sold, the orange sofa torn apart and sitting in the garage as I work on it, my living room is very empty. It just has the coffee table and the two painted chairs in it… well, that is until this past Tuesday!

After many months of walking by these chairs and wanting to strip them down and start over, I’m finally doing it!! My friend, Jilien, and I signed up for our second upholstery class that started on Tuesday, and these bad boys are being stripped down!

First, I ripped off the skirt... wait, doesn't that make these chairs "ladies"?

At this point, I’m almost done taking all the old stuff off of this one. Of course, I didn’t get any shots of it at the end of the class, but I will before the start of class next week so you can see the progress every class. Before the week is over, I have to get the other one “naked” so I can re-cover both of them at the same time – one at the class, and one at home. Most importantly, I need to pick a fabric. Do I go solid, or patterned? White? Black? Gray? Red??? I have a serious case of “paralyzation by over-analization”.  Someone help me!

These are my friends’ chairs that they will be working on. Love these first two!!

T's chair - before

M's chair - before

Jilien's bar stool - she has two of these to re-finish

Jilien’s bar stool seats were actually covered/draped in a red fabric before class started, but she got that off before I could take a proper before pic!

I’m trying to be better about documenting this class’s before, during and after.  I’m always so amazed at what a little bit of elbow grease and fabric can do to make an old chair, new again.

Are YOU working on anything interesting this week?

Thanks for stopping by!

Eliesa