Before and After: my vintage Hollywood Regency chairs

My finished product wouldn't ever be mistaken for a professional upholstery job. No, no it won't. But I am rather proud of my chair. It was my first "big" job. Before, I had only done dining chairs, which is just wrapping fabric around the seat and stapling. This required me to sew the seat cushions. And I had never sewn in piping before. On a round cushion no less. Squares, I can do. Curves notsomuch. At one point, I almost gave up and was going to tearfully bring the chair and fabric to the upholstery shop... but I sstuck with it, and the outcome isn't so bad for a first chair. This is my lessons learned chair since I have another to go.

You remember the story right? I got that at an estate sale. This pair of chairs were from the Muehlebach Hotel. Who knows - maybe a President sat on one!

Without further ado...

BEFORE:


It's like orange shag carpet threw up on a chair! And the once-white lacquer is now rather sad. It took hours of stripping, sanding, staining and sealing, in addition to the agony of upholstery to make this...

AFTER:

No, no, no - it isn't black paint. This is Minwax Ebony stain. I love that it is so dark, yet the light hits it and the natural woodgrain shows through:


I used Polycrylic High Gloss to seal the chair. I normally use matte, but this chair, I think, warrants a little extra bling!


To fiinish off the top edge of the chair, I handstitched on this white edging:

The fabric is Alexander Henry's Hollywood in Pink. This will be going into the pale pink dining room, so I think the brighter pink fabric and dark wood will be a nice accent. This is as "glamorous" as I get. ;)

When I recover from sewing, I will post a step by step. That will require uploading a lot of photos and Blogger is such a pain with that!