Reupholstering chairs: what I learned

I got an email the other day that reminded me I never did my 'what I learned' post about reupholstering my Louis chairs.

Overall I learned two very important things: 1. Reupholstering stuff is time consuming and 2. Having the right tools makes ALL the difference.

Here are my chairs before:



And after!

Daisy approved :)

 

I followed Jenny's tutorial (because she is a DIY genius!!) In the post, she makes the point that if you want to take on a reupholstery project, you really just have to be able to think on your toes and come up with solutions on your own, as every project is different. I think this is so true. My project ended up being totally different than hers, and I had to think on the fly.

In regards to #2 from above- GET REALLY SHARP SCISSORS for the cording. If where you cut the cording isn't super crisp... it ends up looking super bad :( Also, having a really strong staple gun helps, too.

After completing my chairs, I would definitely be up for doing something like them again. I think the hardest reupholstery project is probably the first one... I def had a few break downs here and there. But now that I've 'lived and learned' - its really cool to know that I can do it! And that I saved about $400 doing it myself :)

I will definitely take on this type of project again. Probably with the orange chairs. Surprise, surprise - I want to change them. I should know myself well enough to know that would have been the outcome... oh well.

If you have any specific questions, please let me know! I would love to help if I can.