Slipcovers and Slip Ups - Part 3

Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this nightmarish project.

I am embarassed that what was intended to be an easy peasy update of these chairs has become what it has. I appreciate you all bearing with me while I continue to try (and fail) to get this right.

Ok, so we're now going to reupholster these babies. I am not going to lie. I contacted several upholstry shops to see if it was in my budget to have this professionally done. At $1,000/chair (no, I am not kidding) that was not even an option. So, here we go again, Mel is gonna DIY!

I found these two helpful blogs that show, step by step how to go about reupholstering a wing back chair. Brooke, at All Things Thrifty, also tackled a wing back with amazing results! Definitely check out these how-tos before tackling this yourself.

These chairs have a very traditional shape, and I thought I would have some fun with them by using a more modern fabric. I bought my fabric for 50% at Fabricland. Mr. Mel picked it! Each chair will use about 5 yards of fabric. I decided to do away with the piping, and keep it simple. Yeh, famous last words.

I started by stripping the chairs of fabric. This was a tedious and time consuming process. I figured that I could strip both chairs in a morning. In fact, it took me just over three hours to remove all of the staples from just *one* chair!

Once I had the chair naked, I took the fabric pieces I had removed (and carefully labelled) and used them to cut out pieces from my fancy new fabric. It was at this point that I had a conversation about my project with my in-laws, and vented about how frustrating the process was. My ever helpful father in law suggested I call his sister, because her boyfriend used to own an upholstery shop! Turns out he redid all of the antique furniture during the restoration and renovation of a gorgeous, and historic hotel 5 star here in town.

I could have kissed him I was so excited! A call was made and, after a trip to a nearby city to drop them off and little negotiation, this project was officially someone else's problem! Ha ha. A week later the chairs were done, and the torturous project was at an end.

In the end, this project pretty much kicked my butt. I know that I could absolutley have recovered these myself but, honestly, my heart just wasn't in it anymore. I was relieved to pass it on to someone else. But, even after all of  my mistakes and the cost of materials and labour, I still got myself two awesome wingbacks for less than the cost of one new chair! I call that a WIN!

A couple of tips if you are going to tackle a project like this (our upholsterer added a few I hadn't even thought of):

• Buy an extra yard or two of fabric for each chair, you will likely need it and, if you don't, you can always use it for cushions later.
• Beg, borrow, or steal an electric staple gun. You will not regret it.
• Have a glue gun at the ready, it will come in handy dandy.
• use a fabric steamer to santize and re-puff the existing foam. Not having to replace this will save you loads of cash.
• Be prepared to improvise. You are not a professional, you may have to use your imagination to figure out how to get things just right.

After all of the drama, here is the cost breakdown for this project (including cost for my screw-ups):

$100 for wing back chairs
$52 for canvas drop cloth (fabric)
$44 for supplies (cording, thread, buttons, staples, etc.)
$155 for fabric
$400 for labour
Total cost of this monstrous rehab = $751