Thursday, August 27, 2009

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!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those are so beautiful! They look like they were professionally done to me.

I really like how you used ebony stain as opposed to black paint.

Maria said...

It looks like a totally diffent chair. Beautiful!

Tammy@InStitches said...

It's fabulous. love it, love it, love it.

Tammy said...

Puck those are amazing. You did a great job. Heads up - I am heading to Ikea tomorrow morning so if you'd like me to pick you up some stuff let me know. I'll check email tonight before I go to bed and then again in the morning.
Just email your list to :
tx_duke_fans@yahoo.com

tammy

Its So Very Cheri said...

What a great transformation. I like the depth of the stain.

Just checking in with everyone and to give an update.
I have a new party starting- Wed Sept 2. So each week I will have the Knock Off Knock Out party on Mondays and the Holiday/Seasonal party on Wed. I hope you come for a visit.
New buttons to grab as well.
Cheri
Its So Very Cheri