Reupholstery Project

Here at Mel & Liza, one our favorite themes is all about appreciating and incorporating beautiful things into our homes and lives without breaking the bank.  Sometimes the tiniest budgets can make for some of the most creative solutions.

While Jady and I were living the student lifestyle (i.e. impecuniously) in Berlin, we rented an unfurnished apartment and had to start from scratch to decorate.  What a fun challenge!  One brilliant buy was a chair from eBay for which I was the sole bidder-- I got it for 1 Euro!  Determined to save money wherever we could, we even picked it up without a car, and Jady carried it back on the street tram to our apartment... He really is the best of husbands.  Especially since this thing is old, well built and weighs a ton.  

The major problem with it (and why no one else was interested!) was the "white" fabric... No longer white, it was yellowed in some areas and stained in others, and no matter what I used to try to clean it, the discoloration and coffee(?) stains refused to budge. 

We were desperate for furniture, though, and lived with its ugliness while I tried to decide if it was worth keeping.  In the meantime we discovered that it is by far the most comfortable chair we owned, and my husband has now spent countless hours reading theology on this dingy seat.  So we had to keep it.

After getting an estimate for professional reupholstering that was way too much to justify at the time, I toyed with the idea of making this a DIY project.  What did I have to lose?  If I failed, it was, after all, only a 1 Euro chair.  So I decided to take on the project myself, aided by this critical purchase from Amazon:

This book carefully outlines how you choose a fabric, remove the old material and finally recover your furniture, encouraging you along the way.  One thing it emphasizes and I will, too, is that LOTS of notes and LOTS of photos from before and during the process will help you know what to do when the stripping is finished and it's time to put it all back together. Here are some of my measurements:

If you do tackle a project like this, be sure to take photos of how the piece is already put together.  How are the pieces of fabric attached to each other and the chair?  You'll be so glad you did! 

Before I began the project, I started looking around for ideas about how to choose a fabric, an aspect of the project I found pretty intimidating.  Thankfully, LGN gave me the idea in her post on kid-friendly living rooms to consider using an indoor-outdoor fabric.  Now, we don't have children yet, but this chair does get a lot of use. Between its position in direct sunlight and the amount of coffee and snacks consumed in it, I thought choosing a durable, fade- and stain-resistant fabric might not be a bad idea.  And there are lots of fun choices that don't look like they're made for beach furniture.  

This is really the photo that inspired me the most.  How pretty is that sofa?  Covered in Duralee for Sunbrella, this couch is refined but ready to handle pets and kids with easy cleanup.  

Stay tuned until Friday for the after photos!

Liza