Chloe's Chair: Get a Grip

Time to tackle Chloe's chair! First step was to remove all the old fabric and those hundreds of nail tacks. Beneath the fabric, there was foam on the seat, back, front, and arms, which I'll be reusing. The seat of the chair was made of some leather straping over a muslin fabric. The back of the chair was made of two pieces of foam with a piece of cardboard sandwiched between them. Though the muslin is stained and a bit loose, the straping is still fairly taut and the cardboard is still nice and hard so I'm planning to just leave them all in place rather than remove and replace. So it looks like I can reuse everything; the only new parts will be the fabrics.


As I posted before, the part I was most worried about was how to do the actual tacking of the nails. Katie had a great suggestion for me - use flexible tacking strip instead. Flexgrip, also known as curvease or ply-grip, is a flexible strip with little metal teeth that grip onto the fabric. It makes finishing edges and working around curves very easy. I found mine at the Mississauga Fabricland location which carries upholstery supplies.


With the chair stripped bare, (and this youtube video to guide me) I decided to test drive the flexgrip and see if I could do it myself. I cut a piece the length of the front of the seat. Using the original nail tacks, I nailed the strip, following the curve of the front. You can see I wasn't that precise with this test and some of the metal overhung the edge.


Once the metal was in place, I folded the back of the metal strip forward leaving a 1/4" gap. Then I put the foam back in place and wrapped the old fabric on top. Using a screwdriver, I tucked the edge of the fabric into the gap all along the strip. Finally, I used a rubber mallet to lightly tap the flexgrip down and close the gap.


And tada - here's how the flexgrip test turned out:

Not bad :) For the real thing, I'll have to install the flexgrip back from the wood edge and bring the foam and fabric forward so that I get a nice curved cushion and no metal parts pinching baby bums! We've put a coat of primer on the chair and should have all the paint and reupholstery done in the next few days. The colour we ended up choosing is so yummy I could eat the chair up!

Mini Chair Makeover

Remember this little chair we found at a garage sale this summer? Well, I wasn't entirely satisfied with my initial fabric schemes so we went and picked some new fabric for it at Designer Fabrics. I wanted something feminine but not too girly, something sophisticated enough to complement the design of the chair, but not too adult. Here's what I picked!


The nubby plaid will go on the front, seat, and arms of the chair. The stripe will go on the back.

Oh, how I love these together! They remind me of summer and sunshine and lemonade and picnics! Preppy and pretty :)


And I think I will paint the wood the robin's egg blue I was contemplating before. Now if I could just get this baby to nap (and stop trying to climb the furniture and stop wanting to be held by mommy all.the.time), then I'd actually have time to redo the chair ;)

Garage Sale Score - Part II

...and this is the reason why only one person in the HandyLuster household will get to enjoy the chair! Yes, its a miniature throne fit for a princess. I think its so adorable. The lady who sold it to us said she put her china dolls in the chair. We'll use it for our own little doll :)

So what are we going to do with the chair? Well, I'd like to use different fabrics on the front and back, like this:



We have some fabric leftover from the curtains and banquette in Chloe's room, plus some striped IKEA fabric leftover from the kitchen roman blind:



The curtain fabric with the swirlies has a nice sheen to it. It feels silky and would make the chair feel a bit glam. I like it for the front of the chair. For the back, either the striped fabric or the gingham fabric could work. The gingham would be a bit more traditional and suits the style of the chair. I really like stripes on a chair but I'm not sure these two work together. What do you think?



To finish off the edges, we could do a gimp trim like Just Beachy does with her fab chair makeovers. Here's one she did... isn't it lovely.



As for the paint finish, I'm not sure yet. Suggestions? Canary yellow? Creamy white? Robin's Egg Blue? Lilac? Whatever it is, we'll be painting Chloe's dear little doll bed and mini vanity from Nana the same colour.



Isn't baby-sized furniture the cutest thing? :)

Garage Sale Score

HandyMan, Chloe and I were out for a walk yesterday and stumbled upon a garage sale in our neighbourhood. It was late morning so we were surprised to see some nice items that hadn't yet been scooped up. We immediately fell in love with this beauty of a chair:


Its a reproduction Victorian round back parlor chair. The seller said it was made in Williamsville (NY?) and originally cost a few hundred dollars but we could have it for - wait for it - $20!! Sold!! I immediately envisaged doing one of those great chair makeovers Design Sponge features on her blog, like this one:



or this one:


I love the curves on our chair and think a painted finish will really help to bring them out.



Tomorrow, I'll show you some fabric options I'm thinking of... and the surprising reason only one of us will get to use this chair :o(