10 years later...

Ok, there is a story behind today's reveal. 10 years ago when the hubs and I were first married we went into a vintage store in Columbia Missouri where we went to school. I saw a chair. I loved the chair. I had to have the chair. Hubs looked at my like I was CRAZY! It had some sort of mustard/baby poo colored suede fabric that showed butt and back marks where it had been worn in. But I loved the lines of the chair. It had this unique open back and chrome square legs. I convinced him to buy it for me, which was a big deal because we had no money. I mean we were in college and married people.... NO MONEY!! Which also means of course that my budget for making over said chair was little to none! Now I'll remind you again, I was like 20 so I had no idea what it would cost to just have a chair reupholstered and no clue how much work it would be to do it yourself. That was however when the show Trading Spaces had just come out and I watched it every Saturday night religiously! They had talked about how "easy" it is to make a slipcover so I thought I could handle that. I did. I made a slipcover out of a twin set of khaki wal-mart sheets. And I was so proud of that chair and there it sat in my snazzy $325/mo first apartment. Long story short... we moved the chair with us all over the place (we've moved a lot) and nothing was ever done to it. Except a few years ago when I got motivated to fix it  just long enough to rip off the fabric off, then got overwhelmed. Then somewhere in one of those moves that fabric aka my pattern for new upholstery, got thrown away. Blast!

 So this has been the state of the chair for the last few years.... I know, she's a looker. I actually tried to give it away at my last garage sale and no takers!! Shocking!!!

Well, I decided it was time. A big part of this decision came from the my newly found blog world inspiration. There is something so motivating about seeing other women like yourself out there accomplishing their diy to do lists!!

I would love to tell you that I flew through this. That it was so much easier than I expected. That I don't know why I waited so long. Well, I can't. It was hard and confusing and there are definitely some parts that I am sure would make "real" reupholsterers ( is that a word?) cringe like crazy!

But I kept plugging away... and fudging away...

I wrapped and tucked and stapled.... then unstapled, untucked and unwrapped and tried again...and again and...you get the picture.

Anyway, after it was all said and done, I give you the finally finished chair!!!

 I added nailhead trim both to cover the staples and to try to tone down the modern look of the chair. I found the fabric (actual upholstery fabric) for $3.50 a yard in the remnant bin at Hancock Fabrics. Then I spray painted the chrome legs with Krylon's ORB spray paint. LOVE that stuff!!

Here it looks even better with two cute models! It will be so nice to have some extra seating in my office too!

I hope you enjoyed my story of "THE CHAIR". But more than that, if you are reading this and you have some project you have been putting off because it seems too overwhelming that this inspires you to just dig right in!!!