I recently procured a new divan for my home library and the old easy chair (see picture above) had to go. I decided to bring it to my office, you know, so someone could sit on it if they wanted to. But here's the thing: the chair is dark blue (see pic). My office is black and green. Dark blue is so obviously wrong for the space that it hurts my eyes.
So what did I decide to do? The omni-able DIY-person that I am, coupled with a talent with the sewing machine, I decided to upholster the chair - change the fabric to a black one and wax the handles to match the other wooden elements in the office. To make things interesting, I decided to use my old and no longer fitting black jeans for the cushion and an old skirt I was unable to upcycle for the back.
A trip to the fabric store - avoided! Trash turned into design - succeeded!
Got excited already? Wanna upholster your own furniture? If you don't have a sewing machine (or don't know how to use one even if you did), I have a handy tip for you: get a large piece of old (or new) fabric - whatever you want to upholster your piece of furniture with - wrap it neatly around each of the cushioned pieces of the furniture, and staple it into place. Hardware stores sell these staplers that only have the side that pushes out the staple; that's to say, it doesn't turn in the ends of the staple. There's a handle on top: you just place the stapler on top of the fabric and a wooden part of the furniture underneath, press the handle, and it spits out a staple that holds the fabric together with the wood. Do this all around the piece, neatly tucking and stapling the ends of the fabric where you can't see it (usually under the bottom, on the bare wood part). Sand and paint or wax the wooden parts, let dry. Screw the parts back together, and you're finished.
Giving a new life for an old piece of furniture, while having tons of fun yourself! What could be more awesome?
RK
