Corner Chair

Meet the chair in the corner of my office:

I kind of love the lines of the back, but that gray vinyl was not doing this chair any favors. So yesterday I decided to recover the poor thing. Wait, that's a lie. I actually decided to recover this chair when I bought it over six years ago for $75 at a flea market with three of it's friends and the wooden table that now poses as additional counterspace in the kitchen (and I would like to keep this sentence going as long as possible). Since then, I've sold two of the chairs, and the fourth is in a basement somewhere. I think. BUT. This little guy was hanging out in my office and in need of a makeover.

I didn't want errands or money to be involved in this spur-of-the-moment, after work project. Luckily, I have a bin of fabric in the craft closet because doesn't everybody?

How about this one?

No. How about this one?

No. Wait, maybe. It's reversible!

Perfect.


So I set about removing the staples in the gray vinyl. All 52 of them. And surprise! There's another horrid seat cover under that one.

I then removed 55 more staples to discover, YEP, another awful seat cover under that one.

I suddenly realize I'm dealing with the Russian matryoshka doll of chairs here. I start to get really worried about what is under this layer. And then really excited. What if it's a treasure map! Will Nicholas Cage help me!? Will he even take my call?!?

After 49 more staples, it turned out to be just a nice, clean cushion. I must have sold the one with the map. Those lucky unsuspecting Craigslisters!

The cushion was stapled nicely around the edge and didn't smell bad or anything. Yes, I checked. Since I didn't really go into this project with any upholstery foam lying around, I thought it best to use it as is. My original half-formed plan was to triple up on batting; this was way better. I then just cut some batting and fabric, lay the naked seat upside down on top, and started stapling everything to the bottom of the seat. After a few staples to secure the batting and fabric, I cut away the extra. Then I stapled and stapled and stapled. Staple guns are super fun, by the way. I totally get the staple overkill. I did it myself.

Voila!