Before, with the frame washed in cold, needing to be glued, and the original gold-ish green crushed velvet upholstery, which looks brown in the pic.

After - I used a coordinating fabric on the back side.

You are SO talented with a GREAT eye ....

Seriously wonderful work!

I just had to take another pic in natural light as the fabric is really more green than blue. but I'm having a hard time capturing it. The little white stub in the foreground is Riley's tail. He 'helped' during the whole upholstering part of the process.

How do you choose the fabrics??? I get so overwhelmed with fabrics that I get paralyzed.

Anyway, love seeing your projects!!

Can I send you my desk chair, please? It came with a 1920's era secretary, but I don't know if it's that old. It had abeautiful tapestry, but the underpinnings are worn out, and now the fabric is gone, too.

Nancy

I ADORE fabric...and I have quite a collection, but I get the expensive stuff very inexpensively on eBay. Calico Corners has this fabric on sale now for $51.99 a yard, down from $64.99 a yard. I got 2 yards on eBay (a remnant) for $8.99. Working with fabric that I'd typically not be able to afford is quite a 'rush'! I decided to use this on the chair as the deep brown in the embroidery goes well with the dark color of the frame.

When I see a fabric that interests me on eBay, if the seller has the name of it correct, I try to find it elsewhere online to see what it sells for, and to see if the eBay photo is accurate for the colors.

I just got 3 remnant pieces of the fabric linked below on eBay for $11.25 total. Auction pieces measure: 54" x 1.47 yd, 54" x .32 yd, and 51" x 26". The dark blue areas within the circles are raised chenille - sort of like a poodle cut'! It sells here for $39.55 a yard and is even more at Hancock Fabrics.

Nancy, I have 2 friends with chairs just as you describe that they want me to do. They are passed down family pieces and I know that bringing them back to life will make them very happy.

Another gorgeous job, my3dogs!

After I finished it, I went out to do yard work. I came back in and walked into the LR and saw it with fresh eyes... I worked on it in my office/sewing room, using fabric that I liked, and never thought of keeping it. But look at the colors in the rug below it. It sort of looks like it belongs there!

I'm not sure if you remember my settee post but you were very encouraging for me to give it a shot. Sadly I'm just not ready for the big stuff yet, will do a few smaller pieces before I get into the big stuff. However, its costing $350 plus the cost of my fabric I found online so don't think I'm not going to work my way up. You are an inspiration!

Patty, I use upholstery hot glue sticks now that I bought online as it's faster than the Magna-Tac 809 that I used in the beginning. I hold the cord end tightly with my left hand after cutting it, and immediately 'seal' the end of it lightly with the hot glue, which prevents it from untwisting. This is the first time I have used the cord, which was on clearance at Joann's and a perfect match. It was marked .97 a yard, but I notice on my receipt that they charged me .48 a yard!

If I knew how

If you are at all crafty/handy, upholstery is a lot more stapling than sewing, and centering if you use fabric like the above, and just using the pieces that come off as patterns.

This is the before, and I plan to start the fabric re-do on this one over the weekend. I have painted the chair in Annie Sloan's Old Ochre, which is more ivory, and am doing a light wax, then the fabric and sewing starts.

The linen stripe will be used on the outside, (vertically) and the paisley on the inside and seat cushion. I'm not planning on doing the tufting, as I don't care for it on this chair.

The balloon chair next! Can't wait to see! I agree on the tufting, and with the fabric you chose, it will be an improvement not to tuft. Will be watching!!!

I don't really know where to start to re-do it. I haven't yet picked a fabric, so that will be the first step of course. Do I take it down to padding, replace the worn stuff and then basically staple and cover with trim?

Can you recommend a site that shows how to do this type of chair, or what to call it to do a search.

Thanks

The throne chair is an antique Eastlake style, and the other with the cane is called a 'balloon or porter's' chair.

I do strip them down to the frame. You are correct in your thought that you replace the worn stuff, foam, batting and all, and then cover with fabric and attach the trim. You can use the pieces of fabric you remove as patterns for the new pieces.

Actually hot glue is commonly used to attach trim on upholstered items. I haven't used it to attach the fabric though.

What I did to get started was to just Google 'upholstering', and read blogs and watch YouTube videos. There are hundreds of them out there. There may also be books in your local library. If you don't sew or do crafty things with staple guns, you may want to do some reading or video watching before you buy your fabric and other supplies. Good luck! It's hard on your hands and arms, but very gratifying.