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


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PhotoImage:thisdesignerspalette.blogspot.com/


PhotoImage: SkimbacoHome.com


PhotoImage:Blocket.se


PhotoImage:decorology.blogspot.com


PhotoImage:http://svpply.com

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Upholstery Classes at Houston Based l + j industries

November 1st, 2011

Hey everybody! I’ve got a new friend and she does what I do, only in Houston, TX. Last year I noticed a company selling ottomans on etsy, just as I was. As all good businesses do, I had to delve deeper to find out more about this so called “l+j Industries”. I emailed them right away and received the nicest, most complimentary and generous response. I love it when that happens. And I love to share upholstery love, so see for yourself what’s cookin’ in Houston.

So, I went about my business, opened my studio, and lo and behold, now I see that l+j is offering upholstery classes. I’ve always said, the more the merrier, so I wrote them again to find out how classes were going.

Lynne (She’s the L of the twin sister team. J is Julia) told me that it’s hard to reach the kind of people who want to “do” instead of “have done” in her area of Houston. I get that. When I first offered and advertised upholstery classes, it was as if I had three eyeballs. People heard the words upholstery classes, and I immediately saw the back of their heads running the other direction.

Now, the story is quite different. People write me daily asking to wedge into my at-capacity classes. It takes time to reach those kindred spirits who want to roll up their sleeves and get down and dirty in chair guts.

My advice to Linda is to hang tough. Eventually, word will get out and those hands-on Houston-ites will ooze out of the woodwork. For crying out loud, you should have seen my first legitimate upholstery class. I had three ladies and we trekked through a back yard pool house in sweltering heat to upholster in a pool house!
We’ve come a long way, baby!

What caught my attention last week was l + j’s Facebook post of these X ottomans. I’ve always obsessed over this design. I tried to make an X sewing table, to no avail. But when I saw how gorgeous these turned out, I had to write her again and ask about them.

Instead of paraphrasing her email to me, I hope she doesn’t mind that I’m just going to post it word for word.
Once I read about her grudge at not being able to take Shop, I knew we could be friends. Here’s the story of the X benches.

“I think my determination to make them came from my long held grudge of not being able to take wood shop as a teenager in high school. So with my collection of woodworking tools that I have accumulated over the years, I set out to make them with only the dimensions based on Jonathan Adler’s. Boy, did my lack of geometry skills rear its ugly head on the first few tries. Next try was with some CAD drawings that a neighbor graciously made for me. Still no luck.
I was just about to give up when coming back from Dallas, my sister and I pulled off the highway and headed into Ferris, a small East Texas town. We stumbled into the one and only antique store and magically there was one tucked under a table! The owner was puzzled at first that we inquired about it but after we flashed the credit card, she was willing to part with it.
Now that I had one, I was able to take it apart and get the angles right. They are still a bit time consuming, but I’m glad my persistence has paid off.”

If you know anybody in, or around Houston, who is the DIY type looking to learn how to upholster their own flea market finds, send them this link.

And remember, if you’re in or around Indianapolis, yours truly is teaching her fingers to the bone right here at ModHomeEc.

Make a Fancy Powder Room Ottoman

October 29th, 2011

It’s been on my mind for years. Why not create an entire line of ottomans for powder rooms, master bathrooms, spas, etc.? Everybody needs a place to put their purse, jacket, towels, or robe, right? Admittedly, this venture needs to be fleshed out a bit. But in the meantime, I’m going to keep making them.

In my ongoing house makeover series for my Indianapolis Star column, DIY Journal, I decided to do up one of my upholstered spool ottomans with dressmaker details. (OK, so I just tweaked the design I did for the Design Sponge ombre ottoman, but design is evolution, right?)

To see this entire tutorial with loads more pictures, click IndyStar.com.

The Reupholstery of Beth’s Antique Settee

October 28th, 2011

A few tears were shed as our beloved Beth loaded up her beautiful heirloom antique sofa last Friday and headed home to give it back to her two boys, and by boys I mean these two handsome weimaraners.

Beth graduates with High Honors from the ModHomeEc Upholstery Class. She is one cool, pixie haired chick who has become an expert on the DIY version of antique reupholstery. Let’s revisit the highlights of her long, winding, spring tying road.

Here’s the piece she brought in to my studio early in the Spring. Notice the saggy springs underneath, baggy, worn upholstery and tired out gimp trim. Beth took the sofa down to the bare bones and painstakingly built it back up to this gorgeous specimen of a fresh, modern antique.

We were tickled to find old Wayne Feed bags were used as the muslin covering over the horsehair stuffing.

Now, between tearing out the seat material and old webbing, and applying new webbing, Beth’s hubby rode his bike to my studio and performed joint surgery on her settee by drilling and inserting metal rods that were completely covered after upholstering.

On to the rebuild. She rewebbed, cleaned her old springs, brought them back to class and hand stitched them to her new, tightly woven webbing…

…and started the arduous process of spring tying.

Once her springs were in and tyed, (8 ways), she covered them up with a nice, tightly attached piece of jute burlap.

The old padding was just too dirty to reuse, so Beth made a pattern for her seat and cut out a piece of 3 inch foam for practical comfort.

Once the foam was securely glued to the burlap, she attached a piece of polyester dacron to the seat. That does two things: acts as a way to shape the foam, and adds a buffer layer between the foam and the fabric to cut down on the friction between the two.

I told Beth how you take old horsehair, put it in a pillowcase, run it through the washing machine and then lay it out to air dry. She wisely decided to keep the horsehair as the padding for the center back oval. Before putting it back in place, she “volumized” it with a regulator. You could use an ice pick or long needle.
Then, to hold the horsehair in place, she placed three rows of bridle stitches over the horsehair. She then attached a new piece of cotton muslin to hold the horsehair in place, added one more layer of dacron batting and now she was ready for her upholstery fabric.

Beth had finished the seat and attached her inside back fabric to the three sections. She made covered buttons to pull through the inside right and left sections.

At this point, we decided to tighten up those buttons a bit.
Once the buttons were tightened and securely anchored to the frame, she was ready to attach the dacron padding to the entire back of the settee.

And, finally, it’s time to put the three back sections on. Attaching the fabric panels was almost like icing on the cake.

The final step was to attach gimp all around the inside and outside of the settee to hide all the staples.

Yes, professional upholsterers use hot glue to attach trim.

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There you have it. This proves that a non professional upholsterer can really upholster an antique settee, and do a good enough job that it looks like a professional did it.

Upholstery Addiction is a Good Thing

August 1st, 2011

A few years back, when I wrote for Curbly, I used to show a basic upholstery project and try to convince DIY readers that they could really do this. Then, I would tell readers of the pitfalls they would encounter. A common misconception is that you can roll through an upholstery project with NO mistakes or complications. Don’t delude yourself. There are always unforeseen challenges and mistakes, it’s just part of the deal.

When I worked for Paul Howard, the jolly upholsterer/furniture designer/brit, I watched and learned how to get yourself out of trouble once there was trouble. I tell my classes that the BEST OF THE BEST make mistakes or have to redo certain areas. It’s not a bad thing. It’s a normal thing.
So, DO NOT FRET WHEN YOU MAKE A MISTAKE!

Now that I’m finished pontificating about self forgiveness, let’s take a look at this DIY upholstery project I found over on Girl v. The World.
WOW WOW WOW!!!

In three posts, Joy takes us through her chair reupholstering journey (husband out of town is the best time to do these type of things). Armed with make-do tools, plenty of wine and a library of Harry Potter movies, she managed to turn an old tired chair into a light, fresh little french number.

You know why I’m so impressed with her project? Because it’s one tough job to get an inside back like this one sewn, pulled and attached as well as she did. This inside back is one of the hardest techniques to master. In fact, that’s why they are usually tufted (which this one was in a previous life, as you can see here), or at least a few buttons are attached to tighten that inside back fabric, as seen in below.

Joy points out that the most time consuming part of this project was removing the staples. I would have to agree. Look closer to notice how the cording is glued into a groove and that groove is just loaded with staples. So, not only are you taking out staples, you’re digging staples out of a groove, which is a wood damaging nightmare. Oh! Also very hard on the hands.

I’m tickled that Joy is so pleased with her job that she has let herself slip into full blown, chair-saving addiction and has already found two more chairs she’s going to rescue.
Heads up: Bergere chair is another groovy, staple nightmare.

I gotta’ hand it to her, she didn’t overthink it, she just jumped in and made it happen.
See her entire three post saga right here.

WELL DONE JOY, VERY WELL DONE!!!

Next Week: Upholstering the Problem Child-The Tub Chair

April 22nd, 2011

Photo Image: foldingchairsandtables.com

You think reupholstering a wing chair is a challenge? Hahahahahahaha! I’ll show you a challenge, my friend – a tub chair. It looks easy, it’s not that big, simple lines, right? WRONG!!! The curved inside back will send you to the looney bin. Unless of course, you know the upholsterer’s secret technique for tightening and smoothing the fabric around the inside curve, and getting it anchored snugly while pulling and smoothing with all three of your hands.

Photo Image: Foldingchairsandtables.com

Since so many of the 1980’s tub chairs are in need of reupholstering, they’re making their way to thrift stores and garage sales. Cheap to buy, expensive and difficult to upholster, you better know what you’re in for before committing to these potential disasters. Take a deep breath, I’ll walk you the dark tunnel of the inside back. You may want to peruse Craigslist or Goodwill so you’ll be ready for some hands on learning.

Image: Everythingsimple.com

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.

How To Install Wooden Furniture Legs Like a Professional

March 3rd, 2011

If you didn’t know, I love to design ottomans out of all sorts of materials. Whether it’s simply restyling an existing ottoman, or whipping one up from scratch, the one detail that can make your ottoman a standout is a stellar set of legs.

Once you find a set of legs worthy of your one of a kind ottoman, you’ll need to know how to attach them securely to the base. Using T-nuts is a polished, high end method that says you know what you’re doing.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Drill four holes equal distance around your ottoman base

2. Tap the T-nut (available at hardware stores) into the drilled holes from the side of the wood that will be facing up inside the ottoman, not the outside bottom of the ottoman

3. After all four T-nuts are installed, screw the leg bolt into the bottom side of the drilled holes until the leg feels tight. Adjust if for proper alignment. A you tighten the legs, the T-nut is tightened down into the wood which secures the leg. Next, attach an tighten a nut on top of the extending leg bolt to prevent the leg from loosening.

After all this, you may need to attach small screws into pre-drilled holes at the top of the legs as another way to hold them in place.

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.

Sofa Rescue: Back Cushion Button Repair Part II

January 12th, 2011

Now that you got your fabric graft, you need to get those covered buttons made. I use an upholsterer’s button maker called Button Maker Junior. I love that name. Anyway, you could take your fabric piece to an upholsterer’s shop and have them make you two buttons, or you can buy those kind of cheapy kits at the fabric or craft store.
What you need:
two covered buttons
15″ of twine
long tufting needle
scissors
measuring tape, chalk

Here’s a peek at button making, one of the favorites of my students.


Now all you need to do is loop some twine through one of the button eyes, thread the cut ends through a big tufting needle, mark the exact button location, push the needle all the way through the cushion and tie the second button securely onto the back of the cushion. It’s a good idea to measure and mark the button location on the back side of the cushion so you can flip the cushion over, if needed.
Tie the knot and cut off the excess twine. RESCUED!


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