Eclectic Chair Nirvana

I’ve finally finished fixing up all six of my mismatched chairs!

Before

After

In case you were wondering, I don’t even stage Pistachio into these pics. She just has a compulsive need to be the center of attention.

I originally planned to cover the two taller chairs with the same natural linen used on two of the other chair seats, but I just didn’t have enough. I had resigned myself to returning to the fabric store for more when my friend Cassie mentioned that she’s got a bunch of fabulous remnants gifted to her by a former interior designer that I was welcome to choose from. I picked out these coordinating velvet damask squares, which were 100% free and perfectly sized to cover my cushions.

This chair originally had only a thin piece of batting wrapped around the wood seat, so I bought an 18″ square piece of 2″ thick soy foam from the fabric store and used a pair of scissors to trim it to size. It’s super comfy now and I think of sitting there as a little vacay.

I’m so glad I decided to stain this wood chair. I kept thinking the lines of it looked familiar, and when my neighbor Caitlyn told me it looks just like the one in her office at LSU I remembered that there are hundreds just like it strewn across campus. So now it reminds me of my glory days and I smile to think about it. I call it my LSU chair.

The only thing I’ve ever stained before was our deck, which was really a lot more like painting. For this project I picked up a quart of Minwax’s Dark Walnut stain. Starting on the underside so I could practice without any high stakes pressure, I brushed it on in sections, let it sit for maybe a minute or so, then wiped it off with a staining pad left over from my zebra floorcloth project. I got into a pretty good rhythm of staining a section, staining another, wiping the first, staining another, wiping the second, staining another, etc., so things moved pretty quickly and there wasn’t a lot of lag time waiting for the stain to absorb. I could have let it sit as long as 15 minutes for a much darker tone, but I really wanted the beautiful wood grain to show through. You can see here the dramatic difference that even that short time to absorb made.

After the stain had dried I sanded the edges and seat so they were really smooth to the touch.

I’m also really loving how this upholstered chair came out. I’m crazy about the combination of the fabrics and trim (this kind was called chinese braid at the fabric store). This is the only chair where the upholstered pieces couldn’t be removed to put the staples on the backside, so I had to staple the fabric at the edges and then cover the staples with trim. I think it looks kinda fancy. I just used regular ol’ craft glue to stick the trim on there, since it won’t be going in the washing machine or anything.

You can see all the crap on my kitchen counter in the background. Just keepin’ it real, folks. I love that it’s got a little pop of upholstery on the back.

And, since she was former owner Reina’s favorite, I’ve gotta highlight this little lady. She’s the only other one to get the floral linen thanks to her petite derriere.

Overall, I’m thrilled with how they all came out, but of course there’s always room for improvement. Looking at these pictures I’m wondering if I should strip the honey-wood chair pictured above and stain it darker, and I can see that the chair with an upholstered back sits a bit lower than the rest (awkward!). However, it”s got a matching soulmate who currently lives in the office, so I’ve got long term plans to reunite them elsewhere if I can find a suitable replacement for the table.

Maybe all these lovely chairs will motivate Nicholas and I to eat at the table more often. My family always ate at the table when I was growing up (although I’m fairly certain my parents have abandoned it now that they’re empty nesters), and we I made it our New Years’ Resolution to eat dinner there every evening. Unfortunately, Nicholas thwarted my plans by giving up eating at the table for Lent and it’s been a slippery slope to sofa dining from there (we’re not even Catholic, he was just doing it to spite me).