Making Things Look New Again

It's that time of year again.  The time to open up and clean up the cottages, getting things ready for a season of fun and festival.  The Chalet that we have been renting out for the past four summers is still in good shape, but there were a few things I wanted to tidy up a bit.  New sheets for the beds, new wine glasses for the kitchen, and new seat pads and chair covers for the living room.

Have you ever wanted to make your chairs look brand new again?  It really isn't that difficult or expensive. For about $150.00 I redid the seats on 6 dining chairs and recovered one Poang.  With left-overs, I recovered two throw cushions.  Bonus!

Let me show you how simple a deal it was.

Here is the "Before" picture.  Notice the faded blue cotton seating.  There was no padding under that blue and I found my bony bum didn't enjoy sitting on these chairs much.

Step #1 is to remove the seat from the chair.  Simply unscrew the four corners from underneath.

Looks easy so far, right?

Remember I mentioned how hard and unpadded these seats were?

Because I wanted as much padding as possible, I didn't remove the two pre-existing covers.

Here I am cutting three layers of polyester batting to measure about 1" wider than the seat.

Step #3

Cutting the cover fabric 1.5" wider than the batting.

Now the fun part starts!

First on one side and then on the opposite side, place your first staples using a staple gun.

Working your way around the seat, one side and the opposite, place your first staples, while stretching the cover fabric taut.

Keep rotating the seat so that you never complete one side before all the others.

This way, you will ensure that the cover of the seat will be smooth, free of wrinkles and puckers.

 Lastly, do the corners.

All done.  Now, replace the seats by re-inserting the screws in the four corners from underneath, making sure the chair seat is centred on the the chair frame.

I love how perfectly this project finished up.  Pretty and comfortable too.

Now, on to the "Poang Chair", an Ikea special.

No Before shots here.  I was too eager to get started.

I was lucky to find this remnant in the upholstery section at Mardens.

Very apropos for a cottage, don't you think?

 Here is the velcro strip I removed from the original backing and reapplied to the new.  This holds the seat cushion onto the chair frame.

Basically, all I did was make a pillow slip type cover with an over-lapped opening.

Bonus.  Two accent pillows.

Project complete.  Now on to the gardens, the painting and staining.  

So many projects, so little time.

Are you planning any home improvements soon?