Upholstered!

I hope everyone has been having a great week! Since the Olympics are no longer taking up all of my time in the evenings, I was able to get a new project done this weekend. What is this project, you may ask? Well, the idea came when I saw this post on Centsational Girl (a blog I follow). But it wasn't the pillow covers I was interested in. It was most definitely the fabric. So, I pinned the fabric onto my pinterest board, and ordered it from fabric.com a few weeks later (Waverly Sun N Shade Quilted Meridian Medallion Pool). 

And in person.

See, I had been thinking I would recover my dining room chairs. As you may remember, we bought them from a friend of the family last year right before Thanksgiving. It worked out perfectly for our Thanksgiving dinner. But the covers were white and green, which doesn't really go with our blue theme on the main floor. Also, some of the covers were stained, so it probably needed to be done anyway. Here is a before shot.

And here is the cushion after I unscrewed it from the rest of the chair. I used a flathead screwdriver to get the staples out and remove the prior upholstery job. The original upholstery job was underneath and was a cream/white, which I also decided to leave on as a backing fabric.

Originally, I had borrowed J's dad's staple gun, but it wasn't getting through the wood all that well and the staples kept bending. So, I decided to get a more heavy duty gun from Home Depot. I used 3/8" staples. The real trick is to keep your hand steady and press into the material as you staple. That seemed to give me the best results. It is loud, but you get used to it after a little. Also, it's important to be careful when working with a staple gun. Those things are no joke. 

Basically, I just pulled the fabric tight to the cushion and stapled. I also did some bending at the corners to get a nice edge all the way around. 

And here are many "after" pictures of the new upholstery.

Getting creative with my photography...

The whole room. Notice how well the fabric goes with the blue decor in the dining room?

And with the bue tablecloth. It isn't quite time for the autumn tablecloth yet.

That's all for today. This was my first upholstery project on my own, and I think it went really well. I am super happy with how the chairs look. J even told me he really liked them. I even have some fabric left over if we ever find some chairs that will go with the ones we have. I ordered 2.5 yards, but 2 yards would have been fine for 4 chairs. I wanted extra in case I needed it later. And I really love how easy it is to order from fabric.com. I always have major indecision problems when I go to a fabric store, but it was somehow a little easier online. Looking back on these pictures, I am realizing how much we need some rugs in this house. All in good time...