Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Champagne Chair!

This is the beginning post for an ongoing reupholstery project. The most important part of a DIY reupholstery project is creating a clear, detailed map of the original construction. That is what I will be showing for this post since I am waiting for materials to arrive by mail before I can really tear into this chair.

This is a 1950's champagne chair - The wooden fame is made of pine, it stands on a metal base and it is upholstered with burlap on the underside and covered with pink vinyl.

The top cover made of vinyl should be fairly easy to pattern with new material once it is taken apart. The complicated part is covering the backside and attaching the new materials in the correct order.

You can see from this photograph that there was a sheer back fabric attached lastly in order to hide all of the other staples and the burlap.

Photographs are another great tool to help you document the original construction of your project. This photograph reveals a detail in this cover where piping was added. You can see the tail end of that strip which was intended to hide the staples from the cover and create a more finished look. The back cover was stapled last, folded or hemmed in place.

I can tell from this detail that I will definitely need a buddy to help hold things in place while stapling. One should always use the buddy system when upholstering; it lessens your chance of injury and its more fun!

Here you see that a jersey material and cardboard are sandwiched in between the vinyl and the wooden frame to add structural support while protecting the vinyl.

Here are my notes about the construction which I have explained above. This in addition to the photographs shown are the beginning of my construction map. Once I start pulling staples out and taking everything apart, there is no going back so that is why you should be very thorough with your notes and photos just like if you were excavating an archaeological site (my other profession).

More to come once my burlap and other supplies come in the mail!!