The MKDaly Show: Project Two: Chair Cushion Re-do

I am new to this whole blogging thing (if you haven't noticed, this is day two, post three of MKDesign&Decor). That said, however, I have been following interior design blogs for quite some time now. One of the more exciting things I find about reading blogs like these are the "Before and After" posts. I love seeing what kind of transformations people come up with--it can be so exciting to see some object go from drab to fab, hum-ho to wo-woah, so-so to sweet-mamacita-look-out!

Unfortunately, for today's feature, I forgot to take a "before" picture. I am so sorry. I understand if that makes you feel like the guy in this picture.

via

But, if it makes you feel better, this project was pretty run-of-the-mill. I mean, seriously, do you know how many other people have done stuff like this?

Anyways, to the project at hand. I started with a very pretty desk chair. The frame of the chair is walnut (or so I think, unless I have been fooled by some very good stain). I got the chair for relatively cheap from a former roommate. The seat cushion needed to be re-done. I wasn't a big fan of the fabric (I needed something with more flair!) and the stuffing was WAY out of whack. So, whether or not I was going to replace the fabric, this chair needed some work. Here is the chair after I removed the seat, but before I started the re-covering process:

After taking everything apart, and mushing around the stuffing with my fingers. I started the process of applying the new fabric to the chair's seat.

I made the mistake of thinking that it would be smarter to not cut the fabric into the desired shape before I started stapling. Why did I do this? Well, I think that the fabric is beautiful. And it was a gift from my younger sister. I want to make the most of the fabric and so I didn't want to cut too much fabric for the chair cover, which would risk wasting the precious threads.

While I was successful in not using any more fabric then I needed for the new covering, I did make the job more difficult than need be. As you can see in the next picture, all of the surplus fabric was quite cumbersome to work with:

After I had stapled three of the four lengths of the chair's seat, I cut the fabric. Ahh, it was so much easier to work with short ends!

Yes, those are my legs, with my old Adidas running shoes that now faithfully serve as my work shoes. Can you see the paint on my legs? Yeah, this project was done in between days of painting the downstairs of our house. See that in a later post. But I digress...

Before finishing up the stapling, I needed to even out the stuffing. Let me just say that no one ever said how difficult of a task that was. No joke! That was a hard task to do well if you want a level seating plain for your guests and you don't want to rip the fabric you are working with. Here are some pictures of my efforts

Oh, by the way, the poor quality of this picture here is proof that I am not ambidexterous. Or I can't multi-task by taking a picture of myself while trying to manuever my hand in the tight space within a seat cushion.

Despite my efforts, I still ended up with a lumpy seat cushion. I guess that means I will have to invite people over to give some tender tushy loving to my recovered chair. How else will it straighten out?

Lumpy.

Lumpty-dumpty.

Oh well. I finished the chair and I am quite proud of it. Right now it is in my bedroom giving company to my otherwise chair-less desk. Here is the finished product,