Chair Reupholstery Project: Part 2

Continuing to part 2 of the story...(click here to read part I)

Step one were the cushions. First, I took out the foam cushions and boy were they nasty. One was stinky, which I could never detect through the upholstery, and the other had disintegrated into small popcorn-like pieces. The foam was non-reusable and went right to the dumpster. Then came the fabric which never looked dirty on the surface, but when I started tearing into them with the seam ripper there was 50 years of dust and general grodie-ness coming out with each seam. Now, I don't mind getting my hands dirty while working in the garden or in the yard, but dust and grodie-ness are a whole other thing to me!

At this point I needed to purchase foam and figured I would move on to removing the fabric from the chair itself and get the foam the next day. So I dug in with my fancy schmancy tack pull and started working away. Let me tell you, there were a bagillion staples and they weren't coming out easily! In some places I felt like there were staples on top of staples and there was more of that 50 years of whatever coming out of the fabric with every tug. I started thinking, oh crap, what did I get myself into?

The next day I ran to the fabric store for the foam only to find that it was going to cost $85 for a slab of the stuff. OMG... Then I would still need to purchase more batting and muslin for the chair as well as piping and zippers for the cushions. Ok, this was starting to get overwhelming price-wise and I was starting to think about how much time it was going to take me to rip the rest of this darn chair a part. My pregnancy nesting phase was also just starting to kick in and I was already freaking about how full our house was and how badly I needed to purge before the baby came. When would I have time outside of class to work on this chair? BAAAAAAA!

I bought all of the supplies and went home only to find myself way too stressed out about the whole project over the next few days. The hubster, bless his heart, offered to strip the fabric off the rest of the chair for me but he has enough going on already and I don't think quite realized the time commitment.

Then it hit me that a $4.99 chair had already cost me with class registration, tools, fabric, foam, etc. over $200!

I decided to return the foam and some of my unused supplies and stop the project, and that I would donate the chair and the fabric to the upholstery studio where I took the class so that another student could take on the project where I left off. At the next class I went in and told my instructor and classmates who were all so sweet about the whole thing. I felt a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders and it felt good.

What I learned from the class was not only the basics of removing and re-covering small pieces but the key thing I will take away is knowing what DIY reupholstery projects NOT to take on.

Any other DIY'ers out there have an upholstery project gone awry? Share below in the comments!
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