I Sold My Very First Pieces Of Work!!!!!

I am going to gloat just a little bit:) I was so nervous to sell any of my stuff, wasn't too sure if anyone would like it! But, I was wrong. I had 2 of my chairs up for sale, and the same lady bought both of them!!!!

So long to these beauties! I hope they just accent someone else's house perfectly:)

Conquering the Wingback! Part II

I have the chair stripped down to basically its frame...

Now, using the pieces of fabric that came off of the chair, you want to cut the new pieces of fabric. Just use them right on top of the new fabric, and get to cutting! Remember, when you start to staple you want to work in reverse from how the pieces came off. Start with the last piece that came off, the back usually is the last to go on.

I reused a majority of the fluff in this chair, just sprayed it with a little Lysol. There were some areas where I did add more fluff.

I also primed and painted the legs of the chair before adding the new fabric!

Just a reminder of the original...

Working piece by piece!

Have a majority of the chair covered!

I decided to use a nailhead trim to accent the chair a bit. When you buy the trim, it is sliver, so I primed and painted it white. This part is a pain, sometimes the nails do not cooperate and the bend or break. You must use a rubber mallet to nail these babies in, a regular hammer scratches and bends them really easy.

Alrighty, I believe we still have a chair cushion to make!

 This is slightly challenging, but worth it in the end:) You will need to sew for this portion. I had no clue how to sew, let alone turn on a sewing machine! Thank goodness I received a how-to lesson from my Aunt Yvonne! After the lesson, I got to work!!

I took the original cushion and broke it down into pieces. This let me see exactly how it was made, so I could recreate it. After it was taken apart, I cut the new pieces with my old fabric as a template.

Wednesday had to be in the picture:)

Lydia is pointing out the old fabric from the new:)

IT'S SEW TIME!

This chair has piping, so I decided to start out with that.  You take the piping and wrap that with the fabric. Sewing as close as possible to the piping.

These things come in handy to keep everything in place.

The piping is coming along!

Phew!! I finished it.

I think this is a good stopping point:)
The rest of the cushion will be on Part III

Conquering the Wingback! Part I

This blog focuses on the stripping of the chairs...

I purchased 2 pink wingback chairs, from Goodwill (on half off day, my favorite!), and decided to make them over! Some of you may not know, but I am getting married and these chairs are going to be apart of the event. I got into this whole reupholstering thing because of my wedding! So, this starts my wingback wedding chair affair:)

Originally, both of the chairs looked like this...

This fabric was not working for me, so let the disrobing begin! I just use a flat head screw driver, needle nose pliers and some good ol' fashion elbow grease! These chairs were very well put together, so I had some sore hands by the time I was finished.
**Remember to keep the pieces of fabric that are taken off the chair, you can use them as a template.
I also took lots of pictures while taking the chair apart, this will help if you forget how something goes!

Start with the back first, then you will see a pattern for how
it was assembled. When you put it all back together, you will work
in reverse. The back piece will be the last thing attached. It is
helpful to number the pieces as you take them off.

     The cushion comes later, start with the
frame!

                                           Just a few snap shots of the process!

Once you have all of the fabric off, you can take a deep breath because you have just defeated this portion:)  

Advance to Part II of Conquering the Wingback:)                                                      

The Chair Needed a Vanity:)

Well, I made that fabulous purple chair and really did not know what to do with her! I found the perfect match for her at Goodwill! I saw this vanity, or desk, and had to have it! Thank goodness it was half off day at Goodwill, so the vanity costed me a whole $7.

Before any beautifying!

I love, love, love the drawer handles on this piece!

Someone was not taught by their mom that you MUST use a coaster, thanks Mom! Never again will this amazing piece of furniture be stained with beverage glass marks!

This vanity is even on casters! (Little wheels that used to be on a ton of old furniture!!)

After tons of sanding, with a power sander (which my amazing future Parent's In-Law bought me), I got the base off of this piece.

I chose to make a white chalk paint, for this piece. I wanted to keep the old look, and also add the distressed factor! I painted a few coats, and then look piece of lace and laid it on the top. I used a purple spray paint, and sprayed over the lace. That created the lace on the wood! I liked the concept, but was not thrilled with the turn out. So, I took my sander and sanded some more! With more sanding, it turned out perfect!!! I got the distressed look, and it has a faint aspect of the lace on the top:)

I kept the existing hardware, it was just right in its original form!

Now, my amazing chair has an amazing vanity!!!

This Chair Is What Sparked My Passion!

This is one of my favorites!

I found this chair at a thrift store, and saw so much potential!! I made the purchase, and knew I needed to make her stand out. I also made the discovery of my new favorite store, with the help of my mom:) I want to find a place where I could buy upholstery fabric, and maybe pick someone's brain about my new hobby. My mom found the H&R reupholstery fabric store online, and my love started from there! I went in and was overwhelmed with SO MANY CHOICES!!! I ended up finding what I wanted for this chair, and some others! An older gentleman, who works at (maybe owns) H&R, was so helpful. He gave me so many pointers, and I also made the purchase of my air staple gun!!! (Best investment ever!) I have a post about staple guns, if you have not seen so already:)

In her infancy...

I stripped her down, piece by piece!

*******Very helpful note************

Make sure to use care when stripping the fabric. You want to be able to use the old fabric as a template for the new fabric. It is also good to refer back to if you cannot remember what went where. This helps out a ton when you get into even more advanced chairs!

From this point, I sanded the wood frame as best as I could. Then, I stained the wood with a dark mahogany color. *Note: staining is a pain, and takes a few coats to get the actual wanted color. And, the stain has a strong odor, it lasts on the piece for a few days!

After I stained, I put her back together!

Unfortunately, I did not think about this whole blog thing till after I finished this chair. So, I don't have any step by step pictures. I did use my air staple gun for this project, and OH dang it was amazing! I added some fluff to both ends of the chair, I like it poof look:)

I found some fun trims at H&R, and those were added to finish the piece! To add the trims, I just use a hot glue gun, it works like a charm!

Here she is, all done up!

Ok, Ok...........I Am a Gun Owner.

An Air Staple Gun owner, that is!

For many of my start out chairs, I used your basic hand-held stapler. Which, if you read about my Halloween chairs, that's what I used! But, if you want to dig a little deeper into reupholstering, I suggest making an investment!
                                         The Basic Stapler

                                         The Investment

This type of gun connects to an air compressor, thank goodness my fiancé already had one! It is an investment, but it makes the job SO much easier!

A note for those who get the air gun: Make sure that the outgoing PSI for the air compressor is set between 40-60 PSI. Too little, the gun will not shoot out the staples. Too much, risk of damaging your work.

Chair Story: Tragic to Terrific!

I got this chair at an estate sale in hopes of stepping up my reupholstering skills. After much deliberation, I came up with my way of making it a beauty...

Here is her beginning...

I needed to find a way to create a new back. So a little cardboard, some fluff and fabric later, the back was created! Also, with this chair I learned how to make the cushion buttons. I had some sore fingers, but I figured it out:) I have come to the conclusion, this hobby is all about trial and error!!!

And there she is!!!

This chair is actually for sale:)
If you are in the Phoenix area, she is here!
SOLD!!!

Basic Reupholstering: Halloween Chairs

I need to get some basics under my belt. Reupholstering the seat of a chair is fairly simple. I purchased these two chairs at a secondhand store. You have to be able to see the potential beauty through the piece presented:) I chose the fabric that I wanted and went to work! Halloween colors were my choice for these two chairs:)

This is one of the two chairs, before any fixing.

For this project, I used a hand stapler to attach the fabric to the seat. I then sanded the wood of the chair, primed, and spray painted!

Before and After!

What a beauty:)

It's Me, Shelbie:)

I am now welcoming myself into this world as an official blogger, welcome Shelbie! I am creating this blog to show the process of my creations, and to possibly sell them:) Maybe, there will be little postings here and there about the cool/interesting things I have found along the way.

There are so many blogs out there with how-to's, hopefully this one will add a little something extra! Let the creativity begin!!!!!

Just a peek at me and my loves:)

My future Husband!

With my oldest daughter, Lydia:)

My youngest daughter, Wednesday, and I:)

<3:Shelbie