Giving Old Pieces New Life

This past year, my parents sold both of my grandparents houses…with that came a lot of furniture! Old, beautiful furniture. It was tired, a little out of style and some had a thick coat of nicotine, from many years of smoking in the house. Some of the pieces that came out of the houses were actually my great-grandparents, dating back to the early 1900’s.

With us moving into a new home ourselves this past summer, we had some rooms to fill. So, this timing worked out quite well! I love mixing old and new and have a few vintage pieces in our home already but loved the idea of having pieces that have been passed down through the family.

Now, I couldn’t have done this all on my own. As I mentioned in my first blog post, I’d be nowhere without my mom. I got most of my creativity from her. So, she definitely had a lot to do with these projects!

First up, were a pair of 1950’s club chairs.

Things to take note when reupholstering chairs

• Don’t be afraid to get rough. Chairs are built to withstand some force and you will need some force to take off that old fabric.
• Keep the fabric as intact as you can when removing it. This will allow you to use it as a pattern for the new fabric.
• If you are working with an old piece of furniture, consider wearing a mask when you are remove the upholstery…it will be dusty!
• Get a good set of plyers, or a staple puller. There will be a million staples! Remove as many as you can, to make your life easier when you are stapling the new fabric on.
• Use piping to hide the staples. We made a double piping using the same fabric as the chair and attached it using strong hold hot glue. (thanks mom!)

• 

• 

I loved the distressed look that was original to the chairs, however, I didn’t love the colour they were stained. We originally went with a dry brush effect with white paint so that some of the natural elements still showed through.

However, once I got the chairs in the room with our white walls, they weren’t quite right. Out came the sandpaper! I kept on some of the white, as it still lightened up the chairs, I went right down to the raw wood in some places too. Don’t be afraid to just give’r. You really can’t make a mistake when you are working with distressed pieces. You can always go back later and add more paint or stain if you feel you’ve gone too fair. Have fun with it!

Voila!

Coming up next, refinishing a 1940’s Secretary Desk/Bookcase.

Stay tuned.