oh Brother...

Back in January, when I had finally decided to seriously look for chairs to reupholster (I've been wanting to do this since the fall of 2010), I decided to make a purchase that would sit on my bedroom floor for two months. I bought a Brother sewing machine, basically one of the cheapest models that seemed to have fairly good reviews on Amazon. I suppose I should mention that I haven't used a sewing machine since 7th Grade... But, if you don't know me personally, you'll soon find that my approach to DIY is that you just need to believe you can do something and you'll figure it out.

Well. Tonight was the night. The night to figure it out. I decided that a good jumping-off point for my sewing endeavors (which will likely include cording and the seat cushions for the chairs) would be to make a couple of lumbar pillows to go on the chairs. When I purchased the yellow Ikat print for the reupholstery job, I also bought a yard of this gorgeous fabric that basically looks like blue paint smudges. I didn't anticipate how well it would match the frames of the chairs!

The first thing I did was make my cuts. The pillow forms that I bought were 12x16, and to accommodate for the seam allowance I added 1 inch to the dimensions (1/2 inch on each side). So the front panel measured 13x17. For the backs of the pillow covers I decided to do an "envelope" closure. This is where the back is made of two panels that overlap in the middle and give access to the interior of the pillowcase. I decided that the overlap should be 2 inches, so the finished sizes of the panels had to be 9x16. Now add 1 inch to each side for seam allowances to give a final size of 10x17 for each panel.

I would really recommend measuring about 200 times to make sure you have everything figured out BEFORE YOU START CUTTING.

The first thing I did was finish off the inside edges (see above and left) of each back panel (where the two panels are going to overlap.) For whatever reason I decided that I should only hem the edges in by 1/2". I could have easily increased that amount in order to make it less of a delicate job, but I went slowly and I'm happy with the results. Once that edge has been stitched (the right edge of the left panel and the left edge of the right panel), its time to start putting the whole thing together. At this point I laid the front panel down nice side up and placed each of the back panels on top right side down. I lined up the left edge of the left panel with the left edge of the front panel and did the opposite with the right panel. The next thing I did was take my tape measure and measure out a 1/2" seam allowance all the way around the perimeter of the case.

Once this the three panels had been stitched together, I trimmed the corners at 45 degree angles, careful not to clip the seams, and turned the case inside out. The pillow form pops in, and that's it! Instant (or maybe not so much) pillow!

Finished Product:

Bergere Chairs -- Parte Dos

So let's do a quick recap here:

• I bought some Bergere chairs off Craigslist about a month ago.
• They had crazy pink upholstery and an "antiqued" white finish.
• I am going to reupholster them.

Well, when last we met, I was guilty of a little BUI -- Blogging Under the Influence. So this time around I'm going to try to be a little more thorough with my explanations of what exactly I'm doing here.

Today it was absolutely beautiful in NYC; I really couldn't have asked for a better day to get started on prepping and painting my chairs. In the last post I left off not having removed the upholstery from the seats of the chairs. I spent about 20-30 minutes getting the fabric and upholstery off. The seats had a little more glue holding them on and I wasn't able to pull them off by hand the way I did the backs and armrests. I used one of those Husky 14-in-1 painting tools. I'm pretty much obsessed with it and use it for everything. It can even work as a screwdriver in a pinch.

It looks like this:

So, after I had removed the staples (yes, the seat was done with staples, not upholstery tacks like the backrest), I peeled back the upholstery to see what was inside. There was a layer of Dacron directly under the outer fabric followed by a layer of green faux horsehair (I had to look that one up). It has sort of the same texture as the real horsehair, but it's mounted on a backing for structure. Beneath that was a layer of Hessian followed by the structure of the seat (presumably webbing that holds up the structure of the seat.)

I didn't go beyond that layer of Hessian because, well, what's the point!? I don't mind if it gets a little paint on it and I certainly don't want to do extra work rebuilding something that is perfectly good. So the seat structure stays.

Now let me jump back a moment -- before I did any of this I had to go out and buy the paint for the frame. I headed over to the Michael's on 99th and Columbus and quickly located their spray paint selection. There wasn't really a true navy blue, so I decided to go with "Regal Blue." It seemed like the darkest blue they had. I also picked up a can of their gray spray primer. Now, I just want to say that I rarely (if ever) get carded in a bar or liquor store, but these spray paint people take their jobs VERY seriously. I wasn't even allowed to walk the paint up to the cashier myself.

Okay, so I bought the paint (3 cans + 1 can of primer) and when I got home I changed into some painting clothes and headed up to the roof. The first thing I did was sand down the frame of each chair to ensure that there would be a nice tooth for the primer to grab onto. I also had to take a little time to fix a few spots where the finish on the chairs had cracked or chipped off and make sure there was a nice smooth transition between the old finish and the bits of raw wood.

Next I gave the the chairs a light coat of primer. I cannot stress enough how important it is to do very light even coats when spray painting! It seems like it's going to take forever, but I promise it won't. Not only does your finish turn out better if you do it this way (no drips... duh), but they also dry waaay faster between coats.

Once my primer had dried, I started painting the top coat. I have to say... I was a little freaked out at first because it wasn't exactly the color I had expected. Basically it was REALLY blue. Like super primary blue.

Then I thought about it and recalled seeing something similar in Anthropologie (or convinced myself that I saw something like it in Anthropologie) and decided that it probably wouldn't be so bad after all. So I finished up and the chairs ended up taking several coats of paint each.

Now here's the craziest thing of all... When I got them down into my apartment where the sun isn't shining DIRECTLY on them, they magically turned dark blue. The lighting in my living room is such that they basically read as navy. Awesome. My Anthro fantasies were for naught... Whatevs.

Here are a few more photos... and at the end a little preview of coming attractions:

Reupholstering a Bergere... Part 1

About a month ago, while in the middle the run of The Confusions of Young Torless with the Great Recession Theatre Company, I decided to buy a pair of Bergere chairs off Craigslist. I had to trek ALLLLL the way out to Queens and take a weird car service home (Thank God Crown Victorias have humongous trunks). I just couldn't pass them up -- the size was ideal and the price was right. They've been sitting in my living room in all their pink glory for the past month, and I can barely stand to look at them anymore.


In the midst of a Friday evening wine-haze I decided I should probably start tearing down the chairs. The fabric is due to be delivered on Monday, and, honestly, what better time to do a little DIY!? In fact, the wine dulled my nerves just enough that I didn't even need any tools... I just pulled all of the old fabric off by hand.

So, off came the hideous pink fabric.

Now, to be fair, the fabric is of a very fine quality and the original (at least to me) upholstery job was really very well done. Individual upholstery tacks with nary a staple in sight! I, most likely, will not be treading down that same garden path.






You can see here that behind the upholstery fabric there is a layer of muslin. Behind the muslin is the stuffing for the back of the chair. It is comprised of horsehair sandwiched between two layers of Dacron. All of this is backed by a layer of burlap or Hessian which is also tacked to the frame of the chair.

Here is the chair stripped of its back cushion.


The arm rests came off very easily. It looks like there was some other former upholstery on the arms that was left in place (and painted over) when the pink upholstery job was completed.

I decided to leave the seat intact for now because I don't want to make a huge mess until I'm ready to paint. Hopefully I will be doing so this weekend. The seat appears to be comprised of some Hessian, some sort of green faux horsehair stuffing, and a layer of Dacron. When I really dig in we'll see if there is any webbing holding the seat up!

Well, that's the tear down of one of the Bergere chairs. I'll hopefully be back soon with a post on painting the frames. I'm planning on doing navy or slate, but that's all going to depend on how I feel about the spray paints I find.

First Post

First posts are a little awkward. They're like first dates -- what if I don't have anything to talk about!? I'm going to keep this brief because I just want to think of this as an ice breaker. I'm mildly obsessed with decorating and want to use this as a way to document my endeavors. I live in a tiny apartment in NYC and have done my best to make it a home on a limited budget. I have a new project on the horizon -- reupholstering a pair of bergere chairs -- and plan on documenting that here. Until next time!