Renovating

Do you want to upholster something and just don’t know where to start? Here’s the first tutorial in a step-by-step series on upholstering wooden dining chairs.

Today I’m finally going to tackle phase 1 of my dining chairs upholstery project! Yippie!!

I’ve got a long way to go before I can check the finished chairs off my to-do list, but at least I can say that every chair has been stripped to it’s birthday suit and is ready for a makeover.

Removing the old upholstery on these chairs was quite the project. In fact, it was such an ordeal that I wished on multiple occasions that I had never bought the table and chairs in the first place. But I know it was such a great deal, and it’s going to look so freaking fab once I’m finally done with all of it. I’ve already finished the table, and now the chairs are almost half-finished.

Shall we get down to it then?

Disclaimer: Upholstering is very specific to each individual project, so just because I did it this way does not mean it’s the only right way or that you have to follow these exact steps when tackling your own chairs. Also, I have never done this before, so I may not have even done it the right way. Just sayin’. I’m just here to share my experience, not to claim I’m an expert or anything.

Note: These dining chairs have springs in the seat instead of a wooden seat that can easily be removed. Here’s how to remove the upholstery and all the springs as well.

To begin the process of removing the upholstery from a dining chair, let’s start on the easiest part; the back of the chair. First you have to get rid of the welt cord. It’s usually just glued on, so get a screwdriver or something to pry under it and rip that crap off.

Next you are going to need to take the fabric or leather off. I tackled TEN chairs, so trust me when I say cutting the leather off first is the easiest way to go. Just cut around the inside edge of the leather, then peel the leather off. This will leave a strip of nails that will need to be removed in a minute.

Okay so now remove the last little strip of leather that is held on with nails. Don’t underestimate these little things though. They are mean and deadly! You will probably get huge blisters on your hands from all the prying you will do to get these buggers out.

See! Blisters!! I removed the upholstery over several weeks. When the blister finally healed, I ended up getting a 2nd, then a 3rd one.

Once you get all the nails out, you need to take the rest of the batting and innards stuff off the back of the chair.

More nail prying time! Yay! At least these nails are half the size of those big honkin’ ones that wanted to kill me. Just get your screwdriver up under there and pry the back piece of leather off the chair.

You should be sweating now. And to think, you aren’t even half finished yet. Seriously. This is loads of fun. Trust me. I did TEN chairs.

Okay, so now remove that welt cord again from the seat of the chair. Just pull it off and throw it right in the trash.

And now, again, like you did above, cut the leather around the entire perimeter and remove it. You are welcome to try to remove the leather without cutting it first. No seriously. Try. I dare you. You have been forewarned though.

Now the real fun begins. Start peeling back all the layers off stuff inside your chair. There should be a few layers, and the deeper you dig, the more disgusting it gets. Good times.

That black stuffing part is the best. It gets everywhere and is just so completely loaded with dust. I probably got lung cancer from taking these chairs apart. While you are removing the black stuffing part that feels like horse hair (it may be, who knows!), it is sewn into the next layer under it, so you will need to locate the jute holding it down and snip it as you go.

If you are going to remove your edge roll (like I did), now is as good a time as any to take it off. I was going to keep it, but it was so gross that I decided to just remove it as well.

More layers. They never end, people. Never.

Cut the jute holding the next layer and start peeling all the burlap off.

Springs! We are finally to the springs. It’s only been more than an hour by this point. But wait. Check out the layer of grime and dirt on these things.

Barf. I think I just threw up a little in my mouth after looking at that.

Go get yourself a good pair of scissors and cut all the jute holding all the springs together. And once you cut all the jute (twine?!), remove the springs. Grab a screwdriver or something and pry out all those huge staples that were holding the jute.

Now it’s time to flip the chair over and give it a good beating. Rip that black fabric stuff off the bottom and start prying out even more huge nails to free up the jute webbing.

The nails really are as huge and scary as they look.

Now spend another 45 minutes of your life that you will never get back removing the remainder of nails and staples covering the chair from head-to-toe. There are most definitely real-for-real upholstery tools you can buy to do a better job, but I’m cheap so I just toughed it out with a flat-head screwdriver and a good pair of needle-nose pliers.

After TWO FREAKING HOURS you will finish ONE chair, & you will have a pile of trash that looks about like this:

Now times that by ten and that is what I had to endure. Did you get that?! I spent about 20 hours total taking apart the 10 chairs. It was painful. It was brutal. And I’m so happy I’m done.

Fortunately I do have this adorable boy that was more than willing to help out; but only if he was allowed to use a screwdriver and the knife cutter thing-a-ma-jig. Boys. He was a great helper too!

Here’s what our piano room looked like mid-chaos. I am totally finished with the upholstery removal now though. This was a few months ago.

Unfortunately the chairs now look like they were in the middle of a battle field. I’m not worried though. The new upholstery should cover all the previous nail damage just fine.

Here are six of the 10 chairs, ready and waiting for phase 2: paint! And then phase 3: new upholstery!! The other 4 chairs I drug out of the room for the photo, but trust me, all 10 are finished.

I haven’t even started phase 2 or 3 yet, so it may be awhile before I make another chair update. Let’s hope not though. I want these things done!

And for those that missed it, here’s the finished table and the how-to tutorial for stripping and staining:

Before:

After:

Have a great day!! Come back tonight because I’ve got an exciting giveaway! I’ll give you a hint: It’s the brand new model, cuts vinyl and everything else under the sun, and rhymes with Pillowette Famio.

Would you believe me if I said I checked off THREE more projects from my to-do list?!

Well, guess what? I did. For realz. I have now checked Projects 17, 18, and 22 off my list.

What? Oh, you want to know what those projects are?! Okay, sure I’ll elaborate. I have finished:

Project 17: Replace light fixture in foyer.

Project 18: Finish painting foyer.

Project 22: Replace light bulb on front porch.

Project 22 is a no-brainer so I don’t have any “after” pictures for you. But Projects 17 & 18 were quite the ordeal, so I’ve got loads of photos of the process to share with ya!

One of my favorite friends has a two-story living room. She and I have been talking for months about renting scaffolding, sharing it, and splitting the cost. She called me a few weekends ago and was all, “we rented the scaffolding and are done with it! Wanna come get it?!”

The difference between Wendy and me is that she actually puts her money where her mouth is, while I’m generally all talk. I was shocked that she had actually gone out and rented the scaffolding! I talked about renting it, but had never actually put another second of thought into it. Thank goodness for people like Wendy in my life who give me the kick in the rear that I need.

So of course we dropped everything and raced over to her house to pick up the scaffolding. Then they came back to our house with us and helped us put it all together. (They live less than a mile from us.)

I had approximately 2.5 days to finish everything that needed to be completed in the foyer. It was a lot of hard work and I had to kick it into serious over-drive to get the projects completed. Good thing God created Energy Drinks.

That’s me up there getting ready to paint.

First order of business? Finish the paint that I started waaaaay too long ago.

I had to put a ladder on top of the scaffolding to reach the edge so I could cut out. My legs were trembling. I’m totally terrified of heights. But the painting got done.

Next on my super-speed-DIY tour was the light fixture. This piddly little thang is what came with the house. It’s just too small for the space and the three puny bulbs don’t give off much light.

I wanted to swap it out with the chandy I recently pulled out of the dining room.

Here’s a waaaaay-before of the chandelier when we first moved in; purple and gold faux walls and all:

The fixture wasn’t bad at all, it has a nice shape and I like the glass bulb covers. I just am not a fan of that copper-ish color. At. All. No biggie though, I just strung it up in a tree, removed the bulb covers, covered the bulb area with painters tape, and gave it a few coats of spray paint.

I started with two coats of Rustoleum Flat Black.

Then I came back and gave it a really good coating of my favorite spray paint ever, Oil Rubbed Bronze, or “ORB” for short.

This color is the perfect color, in my very humble opinion. It’s black-ish but has a sparkle sheen on it. It’s like an orgasm in a can it’s so awesome.

Just look at that color! It makes my heart race and my palms sweat just looking at it.

Okay, so why did I do Flat Black first? This is my personal opinion, BUT! ORB is expensive. Like, almost-$8-a-can expensive. I paint with basic black first so that I don’t have to use as much ORB on my final coat. It saves me money and ORB.

Here’s where things get a little tricky, so stay with me, mmmm-kay?! The chain and wiring on the big chandelier (the one I just painted) was too short for the foyer. The small fixture I was removing was the perfect length (because it was already installed in the foyer).

I had to re-wire both fixtures.

I unwired the small fixture and the large chandelier, and swapped wiring and chains.

Here’s the small fixture about to get de-wired…

And the big chandelier mid re-wiring.

I was going to give a play-by-play tutorial on how to do this, but once I started I quickly realized that unless you know what you are doing, this is really a job for a pro. There were lots of little steps and it was going to be very confusing to explain the process. Plus, I don’t want to be responsible for any of you burning your home down due to improper wire swapping.

If you want to re-wire fixtures, here’s my simple advice. Put the wires back the same exact way you take them apart. If you are not totally confident that you can re-wire fixtures, I suggest you call someone who knows how.

After I removed the long chain and wiring from the small fixture, I took it out back and gave it a few good coats of flat black and ORB as well. When it was all dry, I re-wired the large fixture and hung it all back up. Afterward I grabbed a bulb, screwed it in, and had Ben flip the switch as I cringed and leaned back praying that it didn’t blow up. And it worked perfectly. Whew.

While we had the scaffolding, I knew I better do every project I could think of because this was pretty much my one shot. So even though I was dying and was T-I-R-E-D, I sucked it up to take care of that boring window.

I gave that sucker some moulding! Woot!!

I pretty much “fake” my windows in my house. I put trim around them, and then I paint the inside of the window area and the new moulding both with the high-gloss door and trim paint (Sherwin Williams Trim & Door paint in Alabaster). This gives the allusion that the inside of the window is also trimmed out with wood and moulding.

And now, here are all the “after” pictures of the painted foyer (project #18), the new light fixture (Project #17), and my bonus project, moulding around the window.

Before and After chandelier:
  

Foyer Before & After:
  

Look! All the walls are painted! (after)

(before)

I’m so glad I swapped out the chandelier. This one puts out so much light! During the day you couldn’t even tell when the small one was turned on, but this new one lights up everything. It’s awesome.

I think I like this fixture so much because a) it’s now ORB, b) it’s so bright, and c) it makes my favorite shape: a star!

There you have it. Four completed projects, three of which can now be checked off the list.

I’m now down to 19 more projects to go. Slow and steady. These slacker-projects are getting de-slacker-ified.

Have you tackled any big projects lately? Do tell!

** edited to add: the scaffolding was rented from Home Depot. A week-long rental was about $100, so since Wendy and I split it, I paid only $50.

Last week I shared a list of 24 projects with you that I seriously need to finish. Or else. I’ve put these things off for far too long, and I just need to get.them.done. once and for all.

Monday I showed you my finished Project #10 (pictures for piano room), and today I’m happy to report that I’ve checked another project off the list!

Which project did I tackle next?

Why, it’s Project #23: Finish the King Size Headboard project.

I haven’t been THIS EXCITED about a project in a very long time. It took me several months, but I’m so thrilled to report that this top-secret-project I’ve been hiding up my sleeve turned out better than I could have imagined.

Are you dying to know what on earth I did to this bookshelf headboard?

I turned that bad boy into an extra-long sofa table! squeal!!!

Is it seriously fabulous or what?! I still can’t believe I actually even thought to do this with a headboard.

Let’s just take a minute and back up a little…

The headboard started like this:

I’ve had this headboard (and matching 3- and 6- drawer dressers) for 11 years. The set was my grandparents and I was the fortunate granddaughter that inherited them.

When I was 20, back before I had a clue what I was doing, I received this set and attempted to strip them down and refinish them. They were originally a light cornmeal yellow and were obviously straight from a department store circa 1950.

Here’s a great view of the original color before I attacked it with cherry stain:

I was thrilled to have the bedroom set, but honestly, I have never loved the headboard. (I do adore the dressers though.) I did a terrible job on the refinishing; the color was awful, and the pieces are covered in sanding scratches (I didn’t use a fine enough grit and it shows).

Here’s the entire headboard, not obstructed by my mattress and embarrassingly ugly bedspread.

Like I said, I have never loved this headboard. It’s too short, not substantial enough, and is a magnet for junk while we lay in bed (alarm clocks, books, ponytails from my hair, jewelry, etc.) It was my grandparents though, and I’ve got some sentimental attachment to the set, so I’ve never been able to stomach getting rid of the headboard (even though I hate it).

One day, it just hit me… What if I put the headboard behind the couch to act as a sofa table? I’ve wanted a table behind the couch for a year now, but we need one that is very narrow (check!) and very long to accommodate the long sectional (check!).

I was giddy when I drug it around back and realized it was the perfect size; not the perfect height, but the length and depth were spot-on.

I let it sit behind the couch as-is for at least 3 weeks, maybe longer. Every single person that saw it thought it looked ridiculous (which it totally did). I would explain my vision, and I kid you not, every person but Ben (love him!) thought I was crazy and that it would be hideous.

How come after 31 years of being crafty and doing projects all the time, PLUS having a popular home blog, do my friends and family still have zero faith in my vision? It’s insulting, honestly.

Finally, I’d had enough justifying to every person that came to my home, and I tackled the headboard-turned-sofa table-project. First, I measured how much shorter I wanted the table to be.

Next, I tipped the table on its side and measured how much of the leg I needed to hack off. I ended up cutting off 9″.

I used a yard stick to draw solid dark lines around the legs of the headboard.

And then I busted out my new awesome DeWalt jig saw that Ben and the kids surprised me with for Mother’s Day.

This was my first time to get to use the jig saw, and I was really excited! It was so easy to use, and I had all my cuts done in a matter of about 10 minutes.

* If you decide to use power tools on your carpet, do so at your own risk.

It made a decent sized dusty mess, but nothing my dyson couldn’t take care of. (Because, you know me, I’m way too lazy to drag the table outside where it would be easier to cut.)

I stood it up excited to see what it looked like (and nervous that I may have cut too much off). Oh-meeee-gosh, I lurve it. Lurve it, lurve it, lurve it. Except for one little thing that stuck out like a sore thumb…

Much better! Next I prepped the area by covering the carpet and couch with plastic and propping the table up on some 2×4′s so it would be easier to paint. Prep work is no fun, but it has to be done! I gave it a good once-over with a sanding block, then wiped it down with some TSP.

Then I primed the hell out of it. Literally. I think I gave it like 4 coats. Usually I use zinsser but I had some Sherwin Williams water-based primer in the garage, so I used it and it did a great job.

Yay, finally time to paint! This should be fun. It’s exciting to paint because you can start to see the final results. I chose Haystack by Martha Stewart and I couldn’t wait to get ‘er done.

Three coats later…

If I were painting a table for a baby nursery, I would have been SPOT ON! But, OMG, this yellow looked anything BUT fabulous, and I even gave myself two full days of staring at it to try to will myself to like it. Not happening.

So I hoped that maybe if I added some white accents it would magically look better…

Ya, that might be the ugliest thing I’ve seen this year… This vision of mine is getting totally de-railed very quickly. I need to redeem myself or all my friends and family will tell me “I told you so!”

Getting desperate, I painted all of it white, then I busted out my trusty Slate by Restoration Hardware… (night picture, I’m sorry)

The grey/white combo is definitely better, but those “wings” on the side just look silly… So I painted them white too.

Ahhh, finally. It finally looks dare I say it? … Good?!

Just try really hard to ignore the massive piles of crap in my living room. I tried to push them all out of the way. Kids…

And now, I will bombard you with every angle of the table that I could manage to snap a picture of.

And that, my friends, is the story of how I turned an ugly, outdated, book-shelf style headboard into the most fabulous sofa table that was ever created.

The End.