A while back I found two awesome, matching chairs at Goodwill. At $4.99 a pop, I couldn't pass them up. I had no idea how I would use them, but I trusted in my new lover, Pinterest, to help me out.
I combed the interwebs looking for tutorials on everything from tufting to welting cord and even proned button covers. Here's what I did:
The two matching gold velvet chairs from Goodwill: $4.99 each
Not only did the seat and seat back have to be replaced, there was a back facing panel to finagle.
After pulling out about a million and a half staples, the fabric came off nicely. I was left with padding, springs and foam in excellent condition. (minus the chunk I tore out wresting a particularly stubborn staple.)
After tackling the fabric removal, I spray painted the chair Dark Bronze with some paint I had on hand. (free)
When I removed the tufted seat back, I was THRILLED to find that the tufting was done with pronged buttons. This saved me lots of time in trying to sew and tighten the buttons later on.
Fabric! I found this drapery/upholstery fabric at Hobby Lobby. It was priced at ~ $24/yard, however, I waited for a 40% off coupon: $16/yard! This chair used one yard of fabric with plenty of scraps. Had I been smarter in cutting out the pieces, I likely would have had usable scraps left for another project.
All the kitties love my chair and new fabric. In fact, each and every one of them took a turn snoozing on the gold tufted back piece.
Phinny isn't pleased with this nap interruption.
Tag liked the aroma of spray painted foam. After I found the fabric I discovered that Dark Bronze wasn't cutting it. I went with a Dark Brown spray paint instead. ($4.00)
Buttons were made - 17 of 'em! (button making supplies ~ $6.00)
Back facing panel was simply stapled from the front of the chair with the right side of the fabric facing out. Easy peasy.
Seat fabric attachment was also easy peasy. I simply used the removed fabric as a guide, cut slits where the fabric would fold around the arms/legs, and stapled to the underside of the chair on the frame.
Tufting was a little, er... Tough. I made a somewhat poor choice in fabric. The large weave snagged pretty easily. I used a nail to make a pilot hole before threading the prongs through. I simply left the velvet in place for extra cushioning on the seat back. Thankfully the Millionaire was able to remove the button heads for me. I was able to reuse the original prongs. With some trial and error I realized that gluing the buttons on would work better AFTER the prongs were in. Grrr. Wasted time.
Here is the tufted back stapled into place. All that's left is trimming the extra fabric and adding welting.
A quick trip to the sewing room netted me some homemade welting. I purchased a few yards of welting cord at $.39/yard and fabric to cover it at $8.00 for 2/3 of a yard. The lady at the fabric stroe was kind enough to explain how to cut the fabric on the bias. Had I only read about this part, I would have screwed it up royally. This photo shows the "tube" that I would later cut open along the lines to create the welting.
Welting cord ready to be glued into place. Originally I wanted to use raw welting cord, but after taking a good long look at it, I decided to cover it.
Et Voila! Finished Chair! I couldn't be happier with the results! Of course there are little things here and there that I see could be better, but for a first project of this type, I am pleased as punch!
More photos of the finished chair:
Final breakdown of costs:
Chair - $4.99
Fabric - $16.00
Button supplies, cord and fabric for welting cord - $15
Spray Paint - $4.00
GRAND TOTAL: $39.99
