Hot Chair Addiction

January 20th, 2012


PhotoImage:Pinterest

If you’re one of us who just can’t get enough chairs, take comfort, you’re not alone. Every time I get a new batch of upholstery students, one or two confesses during the first class, that he or she has a chair problem. You know what they say, admission is the first step to recovery.
Ha! Get it? Recovery, as in reupholstery.


PhotoImage: JetSetModern.com

It’s like Group Therapy, we all admit why we love chairs so much, how we can’t stop buying them and how we occasionally get control of the addiction, rid ourselves of our stash, but eventually start up again.
What it boils down to is that we all feel like chairs are individual works of art, like they have their own personality or soul. It borders on lunacy.


PhotoImage:Pinterest

Auctions are dangerous, antique malls can be scary and you practically have to put me in a straight jacket at estate sales.


PhotoImage: HouseBeautiful.com

When you combine the chair buying addiction with the other new addiction, Pinterest, I’m a complete goner. At least on Pinterest I can hoard my chairs over on my Chair Obsession board without spending a dime.


Photo Image: GoodwithStyle.typepad.com

To send you off into a cold, winter weekend, here are some hot chairs that may inspire you to get yourself into RECOVERY.


PhotoImage:Pinterest


PhotoImage: www.google.com


PhotoImage:www.okayart.com


PhotoImage:gasp365.tumblr.com/


PhotoImage:thisdesignerspalette.blogspot.com/


PhotoImage: SkimbacoHome.com


PhotoImage:Blocket.se


PhotoImage:decorology.blogspot.com


PhotoImage:http://svpply.com

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Pinterest Makes Me Do It

January 5th, 2012

Can you believe fast time flies when you’re mindlessly oggling images of dream rooms on Pinterest? Naively, I start to believe I can turn my house into one of those inspiration boards. The image above is one of those rooms I want to recreate in my house. (Honestly, who wouldn’t want their own little “morning room” where you can single handedly bring back letter writing?) This smart room above was featured in an Elle Decor article entitled A Chic Retreat in The Hamptons. Like most slideshows, I thought every room would be as appealing as this little gem, but happily, the the other rooms held no appeal for me. I say happily because I’m happy I didn’t have to be jealous of their entire Hamptons retreat, just this inviting office/letter writing/reading/morning room.

If you’ve read my blog in the past few months, you may know I’m in the process of a whole house makeover for my weekly newspaper column. When I saw this picture, I knew I could do this look in my own house, the side room off of our master bedroom, which you’ll read more about in a moment. When we first moved here, we halfheartedly turned it into Mr. Mod’s home office. Who knew he was such a slob? Keeping a tidy home office was never a dream of his. He brought home the biggest, clunkiest, darkest desk he could find. What’s more, he quickly tired of being isolated upstairs when all the action was going on downstairs. So, it has become an eyesore of a room complete with a gargantuan copier from, like, 1989 or something. However, the room does have a massive window facing south where I sometimes stand in my jammies with arms outstretched, replenishing my supply of Vitamin D. Can you see where I’m going with this? I could really appreciate this room, I could make it something wonderful.

Now, I’ll let you in on the horrible secret. This upstairs side room was weird, creepy and dreadful when we bought the house. I suspect there were some very strange “get togethers” that went on up there. I don’t even know where to begin, but here goes:

*Diagonally cut tongue in groove panelling on the walls
*Two walls with floor to ceiling smoked mirror panels attached to the paneling
*Brown, black and amber mottled ceramic tiles all over the floor
*A giant, freakin’ outdoor hot tub smack dab in the middle of the raised floor
*A 2′ x 2′ wooden storage cabinet in the corner that houses a garden hose and spigot. (?????)
Need I say more? Oh, I could say more, but I won’t, other than the house practically had to be exorcised before we could call it home.

Anyway, once the keys were in our hot little hands, hubby ran upstairs thinking he could take a dip in his very own in-house, sexy, flippin’ hot tub right there off the master bedroom. To say he was disappointed would be an understatement when he discovered water pouring through the ceiling into the dining room. He made a quick phone call, borrowed my brother’s Sawzall and the hot tub was quickly stacked in neat little piles out by the street for Tuesday morning trash pickup. Plywood was put down to cover the hole, carpet was laid, and the smoked mirrors are still up there. But not for long.
It’s just about time Mamma has her own sun drenched morning room.

Weave-A-Seat Rope Bench

September 1st, 2011

You probably have surmised I’m ga-ga for rope. Besides that, people ask me all the time if it’s possible to weave leather straps or rope to use as a chair seat. Yes, yes, and YES. Take a look at this little makeover.
The white and yellow just POP (don’t you hate it when decorator types say “pop”?). Another idea is to buy a bunch of mismatched belts at Goodwill or thrift stores and make a mixed leather seat.

And even if the ropes stretch, believe me I know about stretchy ropes, you can just pull out the old staples and do the tighten up. Easy, textural, functional and interesting to boot!
See the full tutorial at Today’sNest.com.

Learn to Upholster: The Ladies of Weekend Bootcamp

July 25th, 2011

Left to right: Jaime “The Refurbisher”, Cincinnati, “Lounge Chair Pam”, Chicago, Me, “New Jersey Jean”, Alexis “The Knitter”, Chicago, aka “Alexis from Texas”, and Jen “The Concentrator” also from Chicago.

It happened again. Three days of upholstery instruction, home cooked meals, home baked desserts, upholstery instruction, blisters, talking, laughing, making new friends and a strong sense of accomplishment by Sunday afternoon. The campers came from Chicago (3), Cincinnati and New Jersey. Two ladies from Chicago discovered they live within blocks of each other.

There’s a very palpable vibe when like minded, creative people get together. It makes you realize how alone you feel when you’re NOT around kindred spirits.

Five campers arrived with completely different projects. In a perfect world, they would have brought similar chairs and we could plow through them together. However, the objectives are to learn upholstery basics and have fun. By the end of the day Sunday, I would like to think their objectives were met, even though a few left with some unfinished homework. (We may have spent too much time enjoying Mr. Mod’s delicious meals and desserts and not enough nose to the grindstone.) As they walked out the door to my studio, I assured them that I’ll be available to help them through upholstery questions or challenges they have. Well, not forever, but at least until they have the confidence to work through their immediate upholstery issues.

“New Jersey Jean” had to leave early so we had to get our parting photograph prior to a few of these chairs being completed.

I couldn’t do it without he help of my mod mate, Ed. He worked his culinary fingers to the bone and provided all of the delicious sustenance,except for the pizza, so we could work on.

THE MENU

Friday Lunch: Bazbaeux Pizza and salad
Afternoon Snack: Red Velvet Woopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling

Saturday Lunch: Homemade Chicken Salad on Croissants
Raw Veggies
Chips
Afternoon Snack: Berry Trifle Parfait with Sweet Cream and Homemade Banana Bread

Sunday Brunch: Breakfast Casserole (hashbrowns, cheese, mushrooms,peppers,
onions, and more)
Fruit
Afternoon Snack: Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Hot Fudge

Janet’s Modern Wing Chair Redesign

June 20th, 2011

Janet was one of my very first students. In fact, I’m not sure I would have gotten this gig off the ground without her. She had a curiosity about upholstery that made me want to share more.
Her first project was a modern metal side chair. Even though I had reupholstered hundreds of chairs, I had never upholstered a metal framed chair. We muddled through the journey together with lots of discussion about how to attach cloth fabric to metal cleats on the metal frame.

Fast forward to a year or so later. Janet brought Maxine to class. Maxine wasn’t Janet’s buddy, it was a wing chair that belonged to Janet’s mom, Maxine. I was up for a little experimentation so we got to work stripping Maxine down to her traditional wing frame and going to work redesigning those soft curves. I forgot to tell you that Janet keeps a detailed file of magazine photos of furniture, colors and styles she loves. That made it easy to see that she was adoring modern wing chairs, ones with crazy, modern wings.

Here’s Maxine before she underwent her extreme makeover, pretty basic.

After removing the old fabric and padding, we were ready to redesign.

Janet is an artist and a maker. She enjoys figuring out how things go together and how to create patterns that will change the lines of pieces. After we had our rough plan, we fired up the jigsaw and started cutting on those old-fashioned arms and wings.
We sliced off the rounded wings and squared off the arms. You can see one of the old arms and the new, sleeker shape here:

Here, Janet taped a piece of paper on the trimmed wing and traced the new shape she had in mind.

Next, she traced that shape onto a nice, chunky piece of wood and then cut it out with a jigsaw.

Positioned and glued in place, the new wing lines take shape.

Even though the braces are a little cattywompus, the wings are in place and not going anywhere.

Finally, Janet carefully repadded the entire chair. She wasn’t thrilled about all the sewing that was required to make the new, modern covering.
For the first attempt at major restyling, she hit a homer. And for the last bit of luxury, she sanded, painted and primed the old legs and gave them a matching coat of gray paint to go with her gray velvet fabric. Sharp, modern, repurposed and redesigned cleverness. How could you not love this chair and this girl?

Rain Check on the Tub Chair or Barrel Back Chair

April 25th, 2011

Will you take a rain check on the tub chair tutorial? I can’t find one anywhere! I went out thrifting in the pouring rain today and hit four Goodwills, one Goodwill Outlet, Salvation Army and Thrifty Threads. People, I love you, but enough is enough. You’ll get your tutorial, I promise. I know I should have had the right chair on hand before I posted that I’d let you in on the tip top secrets to getting the inside back of a rounded chair nice and smooth. I’m still hunting. Until then, I’ll be cooking up some other upholsterer’s secret tip project.

Upholstery Exposed: The Inside Story

April 21st, 2011

As I was searching for some unbelievably gorgeous piece of upholstered furniture, I came across this handy little visual that shows you exactly what the guts of a chair look like. Not all chairs are alike, but this gives you a good idea of what you’ll find within. Well, not exactly true, because if you’re tearing down a very old piece of furniture, you may find leggings, old candy, old coins, photos, toys and more. And if your piece is really old, you may come across horse hair (don’t get grossed out, it’s the tail and mane), straw, flax tow or any other appropriate stuffing material.

So, when you get ready to tear down that old antique rocker, have a drop cloth, trash bag and vacuum on hand. It’s a dirty job, but it will teach you more about upholstery than you can learn from online tutorials or anything I tell you. Click here to read the full story of How Furniture is Built.

Design Your Own Mixxy Matchy Chairs

February 3rd, 2011

If I came across a similar set of molded plywood chairs that were truly vintage, you can bet I wouldn’t risk messing them up by experimenting with paint, fabric, decoupage or the like. However, sometimes you come across a really cheap set of knock-offs that are crying out for your artistic alteration.

This mixed and match set strikes my fancy. I love the mix of color and patterns and how they blend so well. If you find a set of cheap chairs that have good lines, grab them! With some painters tape, paint, fabric and decoupage, it’s easy and fairly simple to create your own uniquely designed set.

I’m searching for the source of this photo. Let it be known that it’s not mine and I have no rights to it. I will give due credit when found.

Boston Teardown

January 13th, 2011


Isn’t this chair a beaut?
Usually I’m posting Monday Night Teardown, or Wednesday Night Teardown, but today I get to post on a Boston Teardown. (I also really like the sound of that.)

Every week in blogdom is unique. This past week I learned about a blog called Temporary Nest. It came to my attention through my Google Alert system. I get alerts when DIY Upholstery or Upholstery Classes come up on Google. (I’m also nosy to see who’s taking a class and where.)
But as I was saying, I found the TN alert, went to her blog and read about how excited she was to start an upholstery class. Obviously, I had to make contact with her. I wrote her a short email to tell her how much fun she’d have. I was surprised to get a quick response telling me she knew she would love it and that she’d let me know how it went. Then, right after her class, she emailed me and told me she’d post photos of the Boston Teardown on TN the next morning. Here’s what she got done in the first class.

Read the full post over on TemporaryNest.
If you’re doing this at home, be sure to take photos of the teardown process. You’d be amazed how quickly you forget how each piece is attached.

Sofa Rescue Workshop

January 10th, 2011

From now to the end of January, we’re running the Sofa Rescue Workshop right here at ModHomeEc. Whether you’ve had it with your worn and torn seat cushions, the saggy, slumpy back cushions, the intolerable frump factor, or you finally just threw a bedspread over the whole ugly mess, there’s a solution.


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You won’t have to go another month with your sofa disaster staring you in the face every morning like this one. Help has arrived.

This week, I’m going to show you how to make and sew all new sofa cushions as well as some other slick sofa rescue techniques. This will include new foam (mine will be delivered today or tomorrow), a dacron wrapping to add softness and much needed loft, fabric layout, cutting, sewing a zipper in the back piece of the boxing and stitching all the pieces together so you have a perfectly aligned cushion.

Oh yeah, as a bonus, when we’re ready to stuff the cushion, I’ll show you a virtual physics demo that you’ll love.
To prime your cushion-making, sofa-saving pump, take a look at this inspiring big cushion making post over at www. icouldmakethat.org.

Here’s what I love about this project, besides the fact they’re fantastic:
1. She just sucked it up and did it, way to take charge!
2. She made all of that tedious cording and was able to stitch it in place beautifully
3. All of those fun pillows on the back of her sofa.
4. The fabric she chose

Read the full post right here.
By the way, my tutorials that she referred to were done a while ago. I’m a much better photographer and teacher now. Here’s a link to the old cushion tutorial, but we’ll be doing an entirely new one this week. If you don’t understand something, ASK! Remember-there are no stupid questions. Personally, I always need more than one explanation when I’m trying to learn how to do something.
So, get your notebooks ready and let’s go rescue your sofa.

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