ME: The FINAL chair photos!

Okay! No more dilly dallying! The final chairs!

We started with this goldenrod yellow beauty at the local Goodwill...



... stripped it down to this...



... and built it back up to THIS...






We took a 1950's nightmare (with incredibly itchy and possibly highly flammable fabric covered w/ stains, springs popping out, etc) and ended with a fully restored French Country style complimentary pair of slipper chairs. If you want to see the entire process again, take a look at these blog posts...

1. Changing Things Up
2. Breaking it DOWN
3. One of These Things is Not Like the Other
4. The Eight Way Tie
5. Finally Starting to Look Like a Chair
6. Building it Back Up

The reason I decided to make them complimentary was because (if you remember from this post) once I stripped them I realized that the didn't quite match. I decided to go with my gut and make them similar but with slight differences because I knew I could never force them to be identical, no matter how hard I tried. And while others may not see the differences, I would and it would drive me out of my mind. Plus it gave me an opportunity to be slightly more creative and play around with the design a bit. I have caught a bit of flak from somebody who is in the decorative business and thought my choice was poor because you could have put them on 2 different sides of a room and never seen the difference. But the choice was mine, so I decided to go the more creative and playful route.

So... were they worth the wait? You tell me!

Now, the difficult part, I think it's time they find a home that's not mine. Just know, I did not set out to restore these chair with the intention of selling them. But one of the first things you learn in art school is to disconnect from your work so you are able to sell it. And from years of making custom jewelry, apparently I got really good at enjoying the point when I hand something off to its new owners. And while I loved the process of restoring and upholstering these chairs, I feel like they will make somebody out there really happy. And when my work brings somebody joy, well, it makes all the time and effort worth it.

How am I going to sell them? Hmmm, not sure. Etsy? Maybe. SoWa market? Maybe if a friend will let me put them in their booth for a day. But for now, let's see if anybody here would want a pair of French Country Slipper Back Chairs. If you want any information, drop me a note at the Green Spot Studio Contact page. I would prefer not to break up the set, but if somebody really only wants one, I am willing to talk.

Now, I am taking another upholstery class and this time I will most definitely be keeping the chair. The reason, because it was my Grandpa Bonfiglioli's chair. But that is a post for a later date.

ME: Finally Starting to Look Like a Chair

I haven't done a chair update in a while, which is bad on my part since the chair is nearly finished.

So, last you saw we were up to the eight way tie, I have made some good progress since then. It is really amazing how my empty little wooden box is all of a sudden looking like a chair.

On top of the springs you add burlap...


And then you made edge roll. An edge roll is a burlap stuffed with cotton (rolled and stitched) and added to the edges of the chair to start creating soft edges...


Now, the front edge roll actually came from the original upholstery of the chair. It is not made from cotton stuffing but a cork tube. This will help keep the shape of the front of the chair. Now, to keep that in place, I had to stitch it onto the burlap covered seat...



When I was done adding the burlap and the edge rolls, I had to stitch the springs to the burlap. This is to make the springs move with the burlap when somebody sits on the chair. This is just a quick basting stitch, so there isn't much rhyme or reason other than the fact that you have to catch 3 spots on each spring...


(You only have to catch 2 spots on each of the back springs since they don't see as much action as the seat.)

Once all of that is done, you move onto the cotton and foam. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of these stages. But from there, you add the muslin. Now, if you send something out to get upholstered, they may or may not use muslin, but for us in class , it is like a dry run before we cut our expensive fabrics!




E voila... it's looking like a chair all of a sudden! And at this phase, I couldn't stop sitting on it. I know, silly, but damn it's was more comfortable than I thought would be!

ME: Changing Things Up

Sometime we all need to change things up. Whether it's a different brand of cereal or a new haircut or a new car, we all need a something different in our lives once in a while. When I need to shake things up I either move to a foreign country or I take a class. And seeing I'm married now I can't really run away... so, by default, it was time to learn something new.

This may seem odd, but I always wanted to learn how to upholster furniture. While you all know that I love working with my hands, sometimes I just don't want to work in metal (I think that's why I enjoy baking so much) and that's larger than a nickel. So, I signed up for this upholstery class at the Eliot School in Jamaica Plain.

The funny part is the day I signed up for the class I popped over to Goodwill to donate some clothing and I spotted a chair.



Actually, a pair of chairs. Horribly ugly 1950's goldenrod yellow slipper (roll back) chairs. And after having read the restrictions on the piece of furniture to bring to class (no couches or chaise, strongly suggests no arms or wing-backs for your first project, etc) and it has webbing and springs and padding and wood and fabric and so many different parts to fix, I knew this was the perfect match. It was fate! I knew I had to have them. AND they were $15 each! How could I pass that up?!?!

So, today was my first day of class. The first step is to strip the chair of the horrible goldenrod fabric...




... lo and behold it is NOT a 1950's chair! It was re-upholstered in the 1950's but it is actually from the late 1800's or early 1900's. There were many different clues once you started stripping away...



... like multiple layers of fabrics...



... and horse hair stuffing...



... and stitched (not stretched) webbing...



... and layers of straw stuffing...



... and LOTS of tack holes!

I'm at the point of the chair being nearly stripped and so excited to learn what comes next!

The hard part is repeating all the steps on the second chair at home... fingers crossed I don't destroy anything!