Chair Makeover in Blue and Yellow Toile

Friday, July 24, 2015

Chair Makeover in Blue and Yellow Toile

It's another trash to treasure.
This curb rescue looked amazing at first. I thought it was a great den chair.
But after getting it home and giving it the look-over, it was inevitable that major work needed to be done to it.

It was missing parts and it had a gazillion nail tacks.
Two cups worth of nail tacks.
Take me a week to remove kind of nail tacks.
Just way too many of them.

Because one arm support was missing and the other side was cracked and falling loose, I decided to remove them altogether. A poor design structure meant it may continue unless I used steel straps. That was not happening on this one because I wasn't sure where it was going at the moment.

So I hacked off the arms.

Then I removed all of the old upholstery.
Glued on upholstery. Another painstaking undo.

And finally, I decided what color and fabric to use.

So this baby got the blues... Midnight Sky blue.

Then a nice coat of pearl wax.
It gives just the right amount of sheen.

The fabric is a beautiful yellow and blue toile print.
My friend Millie from "2 Crochet Hooks" gave it to me.
She thought I could put some fabrics to good use and sent them over my way. (Love her!)
This was my favorite of the bunch and I couldn't wait to use it on the right piece.

It was saved for this chair... with just enough to do it.
Including the piping (I sewed the cloth over pvc clothesline, as I've done before here.)
To save a lot of photos, space and boredom, I won't repeat how to reupholster again, as I've many of them here on the blog. But I'll tell you I did the seat first (always the easiest). Then the the tricky back rest.

So here we are.

Meet Florence.

The whole time I worked on the fabric, it reminded me of my grandmother, Florence. She loved her linens and blues and yellows... and toile. She loved little blue glass hens and sported them about her home. And she was always ironing. Always. Not just hers, but for others too. Her dining room table would be heaped with freshly laundered, ironed and folded linens.

I can still smell it.

I remember her bedroom and the little knick knacks that made her house a home. If she were here today, this chair would be hers.

So this is my Florence chair.

She would have pressed this fabric to perfection for me and made doilies to go with it.

The midnight blue looks amazing.

I can just envision my grandmother sitting here with her apron on and a cup of tea at the table... just for a short break. She was like that when she visited. Then she would probably jump up to go back to work because she was a baker and had bread orders almost daily. That and domestic services. Sewing, laundering and the like. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she would make an apron to match this chair. She was like that too. Very busy and creative.