Recover furniture .. who me!
by Roxanna Ward
My journey to recovering our dining room chairs!
My Mother-In-Law gave us a dinginroom set. You've seen the kind. Retro 50's soda shop set. Lots of chrome and vinyl. In it's prime, I'm sure it was the cream of the crop. However, manyyears of use and misuse had left it less than appealing. It was covered in green vinly. THe vinyl had torn in some places and in an effort to keep the kids from picking the possibly toxic stuffing out and eating it, I covered the holes with duct tape. Duct tape, the fix it all. Or atleast the fix it until someday.
We'll, my someday had come. It was ll I could take. I was sitting at the computer when our yongest brought me another piece of something from underneath one of the chairs. YUCK. No more tape, I was on a mission.
I set off to buy the material to recover the chairs. I can do this. My first step was to get backup. WIth my sister and mother along for support and their vast knowledge, I set off for an upholstery warehouse in a not so great part of town. Parked the van, locked the doors and entered the warehouse. On the warehouse door the sign read "Please do not leave vlauables in your vehicle". I remembered my chairs and thought this is worth it! We oohed and awwwed over dozens of beautiful fabric before we finally saw a sign directing us out back to the half price warehouse. Finally we found the motherload of deals. What a super thrill for a cheepskate .. um I mean frugal gal like myself. I finally settled on a fabric, made my purchase and headed home.
The first step in my journey had already taken place. Now for the actual work. I had to strip one of the chairs of all exhisting fabric and make a pattern for the others. Doing this was the easy part. I then made one cover as an example. I did not initally like the way I made it, so I revised it as I made each one. I had a total of siz chairs to recover. The bottoms of the chairs were the easiest part. I simply had to pull tight and staple to the underneath. Then I used an old cereal box front and cut it the size of the bottom and stapled to hide the loose fabric and staples.
All in all it only took me a few weeks. I had the privilage of doing this around all my normal daily chores. And my toddler helped too. I learned that I can do just about anything cheaper than I can buy it. I saved money. I have a custom look to my diningroom (with matching curtains and accessories). And I learned that my MIL was not very well appreciated by her family either. Afterall, they did not take care of her recovering job well enough ... I found dirt under one of the chair covers!
About the Author
Roxanna Ward, Community leader and staff writer for http://www.BabyUniversity.com, lives in Georgia with her husband, Stan and her three children, Kirstie-Raie, Chase and Kale. As a published freelance writer and breastfeeding advocate, the focus of her writing is concentrated on sharing household tips, her experience with her frugal lifestyle which is compensated by being able to afford to be a stay-at-home mom, as well as the phenomenal process of breastfeeding, child rearing related issues and romantic relationships. She is also currently the Editor of three newsletters: What's New at BabyU?, Intimate Encounters and At Home with Baby University. Roxanna can be contacted at Roxanna30135@aol.com
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