Upholstering caned chairs
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Remember the chair I showed you yesterday? One of Jamie’s recent finds at the Goodwill outlet for $5.00. When I asked Jamie “what is the Goodwill outlet” she replied “it’s where Goodwill things go to die”.
We don’t have an outlet here in Louisville. In fact the store closest to me is the smallest Goodwill I have ever seen. Imagine the size of a convenience store gas station. In this picture you can see that it had arms at one time.
I had thought about making some kind of shrug or cover for the back. I haven’t upholstered many chairs, so I just sort of started on it and kind of “winged” it.
After lightly sanding it, I used some spray paint to primer it.
Upholstering Caned Chairs
While the paint was drying I worked on recovering the seat.
Painted it black.
I decided it would be best to remove the finials and take a little “off the top”.
I fell in love with the jigsaw from Black & Decker. Jamie’s dad bought me one for my birthday. However our Home Depot didn’t have the exact one. Mine doesn’t have the line finder on it.
However, I really loved how easy it was to operate to remove that little piece of this chair.
At my house, I have lots of random stuff. At Jamie’s I had to be resourceful! She recently got a new cable box, and this paper is the “quick start” guide. I used it to make a paper pattern of the back.
Jamie recently started selling Pampered Chef. They have awesome boxes! Because some of their products are so heavy, their boxes are extremely durable. Jamie had many boxes set aside to recycle, so I had a lot to choose from.
Jamie had purchased some batting for this project, but while I was staying in the guest room, I noticed several bed pillows strewn around. I stapled the pillow to the chair.
I gave it a new “neckline” in order to spread the “fluff” all the way to the top edges of the chair back.
I used my staple gun to attach the fabric.
I covered the cardboard with the fabric. I used my Elmer’s Spay Adhesive to attach the front of the cardboard. On the back I used some E6000 and tape. As you can see, I left my mark for anyone else who may tackle this in the future. The seat of this chair had already been covered twice before.
Looking pretty good eh? Especially for someone who has no real clue what she’s doing!
Voila!
Ain’t she pretty?
I used Gorilla glue to glue the cardboard in.
It’s going to look great in Jamie’s office/sewing room!
gail
get more chair ideas here:
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This is GORGEOUS! I’ve been looking for a chair just like that, and it didn’t even occur to me to reupholster the back on a chair like this to get the effect I want! Thanks for the post!
Great blog!!!!
If you like, come back and visit mine: http://albumdeestampillas.blogspot.com
Thanks,
Pablo from Argentina
Gail you made that beautiful! I was wondering how your were going to fix that. I would have been stumped! Nice job with the upholstery.
The note was cute that you left. ๐
Absolutely fabulous and now I am REALLY sorry I passed on those cane back chairs the other day. Their backs were a bit torn too. Storing this one for future finds-thank you!
Wow! It turned out so beautiful! I never would have thought of covering it with fabric. It looks like a brand new chair. I bet she loves it too!
Hugs,
Lee Laurie
Wow, to cute…you did another great job.
Oh Gail, that is the cutest chair ever!! I don’t know why, but I never would have thought to cover the back like that, and you did such an amazing job! What a special piece – thanks so much for sharing with us!
What an awesome job. Love the fabric choice and Jamie will appreciate all the love you packed in to it. Thanks for sharing.
I always love to see people out there saving something from the landfill and making something beautiful out of it. It is a way for all of us to have a much greener planet. Very nice job on the chair. Keep up the good work.
-Rory-
Wow. That’s beautiful. Fantastic job.
Wow, that looks great! I got a real kick out of the fact that you reversed what I did to my chair. As a matter of fact I pulled a bedpillow and cardboard out of that sucker to reveal the “bones”. Too bad nobody left their calling card in that one, would have been so cool to know who worked on it and when. Awesome fabric choice too!
Awesome, awesome job! You have inspired me to try reupholstering a cheap thrift store find and see how it goes. Thank you for this post!