Upholstery Project #2: My Croffice Chair

Here is a little sneak peak at a part of my Croffice. This room has yet to be shown on my blog because for the last 4 and a half years it has been, well, a mess. It's getting better and getting closer and closer to it's cyber debut. However, I think it is high time I show you My Croffice chair Before and After. After all, this chair has been kicking around these parts for almost a year and has been finished since September. I love it!

I found this dirty little cutie on KSL for $10. It was hanging out in a garage in Layton just waiting for someone to come along and rescue it. It definitely needed a new chance at life.

Although slightly disgusting, the chair had GREAT bones and was actually surprisingly comfortable. It hung out in the garage through late spring into late summer when it finally got a chance to be made over. In the meantime I sat on it a ton while working on other projects.

I wanted something with a little pizazz. Something I knew would be fun and would give my Croffice a little personality. So I found this super fun upholstery fabric online for like $8 a yard. I stripped it down, sanded and repainted the wood and away we went. Doesn't it look so much cuter! Unfortunately I wasn't able to do the new reupholstering myself this time. Mr. Upholstery Guru was just too busy to take the time to show me. :( But, I still just love her to pieces. I was also given a foot stool by my Mom, so I repainted that and with the left over fabric recovered that too. It will be shown later with the Croffice reveal. I forgot to photograph it for today. I love quietly going down to my Croffice, turning on a little lamp, grabbing this cute little vintage blanket I got at a consignment shop, putting my feet up and secretly reading. Inevitably the family usually finds me but still it's great!

Hope you enjoyed seeing my new little chair. As well as the little sneak peek of the Croffice. If it weren't for the fact that reupholstering involved sewing (HIVES) I think I would redo a different piece a month! It just gets under your skin to remake something old into something new again. Love It!

Do You Have An Opinion?

Alright, I need some advice. Nate and I recently acquired this sectional off of KSL classifieds. (Photo of the listing, not at our house.) We are currently playing a game of musical furniture at our house. Selling pieces of furniture left and right, moving pieces upstairs, downstairs, this room, that room. You name it, it's been moved. Not really, but it sure feels that way. Anyway, we have been on the hunt for a sectional that will fit the room downstairs that we are in the slow process of finishing. It has been much tougher than I thought it would be. We are also looking for a sectional to go in the Great Room upstairs, that one is even more challenging. In the interim this sectional is hanging out upstairs til the downstairs family room is complete. Is that clear as mud? Well, this sectional is perfect for downstairs, the problem is, is that it is ten years old, the fabric is shot and the cushions are a wee bit lumpy, but it has great bones. So, what's a project crazy girl to do? Reupholster it of course! Like I have nothing else to do with my time, right? Well, Mr.-I'll-Teach-You-How-To-Reupholster-Man has an opening in the next ten days to help us get this sucker done. SO, I gotta hurry and find the perfect fabric. The perfect neutral, durable, INEXPENSIVE, fabric that can reside upstairs til heck freezes over and we actually have the downstairs done and not give me hives because it doesn't match AND look right at home in the downstairs room as well. That's a pretty tall order and a lot to ask of a fabric. Can it also raise my children and mow the lawn? So, I have compiled a bunch of fabric swatches to choose from and Nate and I have narrowed it down to three different groupings.

Option A

The top is a fabric I am in love with for pillows and maybe curtains. The bottom left is also for pillows, the bottom right is the upholstery for the couch. It is a heavy duty chenille with a subtle paisley pattern to it, it soft to the touch as well. What do you think of this combo?

The next photo shows the other chair in the room that it has to coordinate with. It's another KSL find, that may or may not get reupholstered some day as well. It also shows the rug, a little bit that is in this space.

Option B

This photo shows Nate's top pick. Funny I just realized that the actual upholstery pick for the couch is the same in this sampling. I guess we really love this one, eh? Only so far we have only seen it in pictures and read great reviews about it. When the sample arrives in the mail in a few days I will know if I REALLY love it. What do you think of this grouping? The large print is for the larger throw pillows and the top right fabric which is shown in a more zoomed in way than the actual print should be in person is for the smaller throw pillows.

Option C

I am really kinda diggin this one too. I like that it incorporates the black which is definitely throughout the room but that the other pillow fabric isn't stripes which the chair and chair pillow currently have in spades. Hmmmm

I LOVE pillows and blankets. Especially soft ones you can snuggle into. It's important to note that the pillows might remain upstairs once this couch goes downstairs, I am hoping for a darker chocolatey-ish brown leather sectional for upstairs, or a saddle type color. Probably more likely saddle, we shall see. It's also important to note that I tend to get bored and cover up pillows with slip covers, so really I'm probably agonizing over a 6 month decision. Yeah, I'm ocd that way. Any how, help a girl out and cast your vote, so I can sleep already.

Piano Room Project

I wanted to show you my new chair I got for the Piano Room. Isn't she gorgeous? I really love her. I have been looking for just the right chair for this space for quite some time. I think she really gives the room that POP that I was looking for. I especially love the stripes. Just the coordinating fabric this room needed. Don't you think? What? You don't agree? I would certainly hope not. I got this little beauty off of KSL back in February for $29.00. This was my secret little hush hush project I have been working on. I kept her a bit of a secret because this project was a first for me. I have never redone a piece of furniture before. I didn't want everyone to know I was doing this in case it was a complete and utter failure.

You can't tell in these photos but the wood has a splattered type of paint finish on it. Plus instead of it being creamy, it was more of a yellowed creamy. Not good. Also, the two tone orange stripe fabric had definitely seen better days. Like a long time ago, better days. We're talking the 60's here. Anyhow, I stripped the fabric off, sanded her down, primed her, painted her Heirloom White, distressed her and put on a mocha glaze, add a little polyurethane and she was ready to dress. I got the fabric on sale 50% off. SCORE! I ordered me up some DIY upholstery books, read about it online and got cold feet. Did you know that you actually have to SEW when you do upholstery? SEW! Sewing gives me hives. I don't sew. What in the world was I thinking when I ventured into this project? I really must be messing up my brain cells with all of the paint fumes I am around to even consider doing this. So, on Valentines day, we were out to dinner with Nate's parents (remember Love and Taggarts Grill?) and I actually pulled out my camera and (gasp) showed LaVere, my Father-in-Law, my secret hush hush project. I was explaining to him how nervous I was, that I didn't want to ruin the chair, but I really had no idea what I was going to do. THANK GOODNESS I DID! He told me how his home teacher is a retired upholsterer and maybe he could help me out! YES PLEASE! I called him the next day and he agreed to help me. WHEW! Only catch, he couldn't for a few weeks. Ugh, I hate being patient with projects I want done. right. now. So, I waited, then waited again, and yet again. About ten days ago he called me and we arranged for Saturday the 10th. YIPEE!
So Saturday morning I loaded up and headed to his garage to learn some upholstery lessons. HOW FUN WAS MY DAY!?! I loved every minute of it. Especially because he didn't make me get behind the sewing machine once! I am proud to admit that I was involved in every other aspect of the reuphostery job. He also offered to have me come back again and continue to learn! Um, HECK YEAH! I know eventually that I will be behind that sewing machine, but I am grateful it will be a gradual process. Until then I will work on smaller less intimidating sewing pojects to get me used to the hives, uh, I mean sewing. All in all it took us about 4 hours to get her done but it was worth it. I was actually amazed how much easier it was than I thought it would be. So, do you want to see her?

Isn't she lovely? I heart her. A LOT.

Doesn't she look great with my suede wall in the background?

By the time I bought the chair, the paint, the fabric and the miscellaneous materials needed for the reupholstery she ended up costing me less than $150.00! SCORE! Have you priced these kinds of chairs at RC Willey? Well over $400.00. The best part is that I got EXACTLY what I wanted! I am totally gonna get hooked on this reupholstery thing!


Stay tuned for more evolution of this space. Here I thought I would be done in here after the chair was completed, but three more projects have hit the list thanks to imspiration from this chair. Hopefully they will be done in the next ten days or less.