Upholstery of Antique Chair

I love finding old furniture.  But it is getting harder and harder to find due to the Chalk Paint/The Mustard Seed paint craze with everyone taking old furniture and painting it with chalk paint.

There is a fairly new Antique co-op place called Hazel Street Vintage downtown, Gridley.  At first, I thought maybe it wouldn't be all that great thinking it would be more of a used item store.  But, boy was I proven wrong.  It is totally fabulous, great prices, interesting items that change all the time.  The unique factor about the store is that they are only open once a month for a Thursday, Friday, Saturday during the first of each month.  With each month, the lines out front of the store on Thursday have gotten longer because of the great pricing of great antiques and collectibles.  The owner sure knows who to pick to become a vendor at the co-op because each one compliments the others.
Several months ago, I found a chair that I liked with nice lines to it.  Very sturdy and it was $45.00 at the Hazel Street Vintage.  It has been sitting in my garage until I had the time to upholster it.  The rain was predicted, so I went to a fabric store and purchased 2 yards of two different fabrics that I like with the colors of my kitchen.  That is where I wanted the chair to be placed.

I took lots of pictures of before, during and the final chair.  One thing is for sure, it had 100s of brass tacks.  Frank reminded me there is a tool made just to remove tacks.  Perfect!!!  He went to the local hardware store and got one for me which made it a lot easier, but still took me 1 1/2 days to remove all the tacks, clean it up and take the old fabric off it it.

Horse Hair stuffing

Using old fabric as pattern

Almost done

I am not good at this by any means, but it was fun to try it.  I have made slip covers before, for chairs.  And took a few upholstery classes over the years.  It just takes patience; trial and error; and a bit of courage too.  But lots of fun. 

I ended up sewing new cushions for my two other wicker chairs and covered the seat of my kitchen stool.  I was on a roll. The fabric was 50% off so I got 4 yards of fabric for the cost of 2 yards.  I have a wing back chair that belonged to my mother in my office.  I had made a slipcover for it a few years ago.  The next rain storm, that will be my next project!!.