Sitting Pretty Chairs

This is the first blog post for Sitting Pretty Chairs, an online space that was set up to share my love of reupholstering and the creative journey I’m on in the second part of my life. I’ve been inspired by many
creative people and it’s my hope that I can inspire just one person to do something they’ve always wanted to try but for whatever reason never had the chance.

I wanted a place to share the reupholstery projects I was working on for our home. I was spending a lot of time searching for old chairs to reupholster with colourful fabrics in vibrant patterns, and I just wanted to connect with others that also found this stuff exciting! I also
had a number of people liking what I did to my chairs and asking me if I would consider reupholstering chairs for them, so I guess, in part, having a landing page to display my work seemed like a good idea.

My inspiration to learn to reupholster came at the beginning of Covid after seeing some ads for courses offered by Wendy Conklin and her company Chair Whimsy. Actually, I had been interested in wanting to
learn how to reupholster using fun, colourful fabrics for a few years prior to hearing about Chair Whimsy, but I always thought I had to be a seamstress to reupholster. Wendy squelched those negative
thoughts. So, with Covid shutdowns in place, it seemed like the perfect time to learn something new.

I never thought I would enjoy reupholstering as much as I do. After taking the course, diving into working on some chairs, and listening to interviews from people that did both traditional and modern upholstering, particularly upholsterers that were trained in Europe, I now understand the value of this skill and the respect that it deserves.

I think I would call myself a chair stylist or lover of saving old furniture and making chairs into statement pieces. After hearing about the years of training and practice to learn this respectable skill I am glad I’m on this road of discovery. I’m looking forward to recreating lots of old chairs and benches and settees in the future and continuing to hone my skill.

I hope you follow along with me as I share stories and pictures of my creative journey and I hope I’m able to inspire you to find your own interests to develop. It’s never too late to try something new!