Furniture Friday: Upholstery: Permanent and Temporary

We used to live close to this fantastic Salvation Army store.  The people who worked there were great! And when you dropped items off, you could get 20% off of any item!  You can bet that I utilized that opportunity a lot in searching for furniture! 

I found this wicker chair there, looking all brown and mustard-y and decided it needed to come to my home for a makeover. 

Hahaha! This is me with my Christmas wares many years ago.

This kind of upholstery job is fairly easy.  Sadly, I finished this was waaaay before I even thought about sharing my work on social media, so I have no pictures to illustrate how I did it.  However, if you're thinking about doing something a little more difficult than kitchen/dining room chairs, but don't want it to be too hard, this is the kind of chair to try next.  

Sewing cording and the seat band to the seat deck.

To make a permanent upholstery job, this does take some minor sewing skills (and I'm not a sewer, believe me!), but you can do it!! 

1. Make a band the width of the cushion plus 1 inch.  
2. Place cording onto your fabric, wrap slightly around it and sew as close to the cord as possible.
3. Cut the seat deck fabric (where you sit) the size of the cushion plus 1 inch all around.  
4. Sew the cording to the band.
5. Then sew the band and cording to the seat deck.  
6. Staple into place.

You can see the seam that connects the two parts of the seat band and then, again, the cording.

A couple of years ago, I had a photographer friend who needed a grey and white chair for a photo session.  She called to see if I had one.  I didn't, but I did have this one and some grey felt fabric.  So, I safety pinned the grey fabric onto the cushion for her photo shoot.  Perfectly temporary!   

  

  As you can see, all I did was:

1. Stretch the fabric so that it was taut
2. Safety pinned it all over to keep it in place.  
3. Enjoy

It even looks good in my new house!   And yes...I still haven't removed the grey - it's just a great color!  I think I'll have to do some other chairs in the grey velvet.