I finished the dining room chairs that I first wrote about in this blog post back in July. I will recap a bit about them but I encourage you to go back and read the post as it takes a brief but personal dive into describing my friend and her home and the story of her obtaining the chairs. As a side note, in the initial blog post I referred to the person I did the chairs for as my client, but in this post, I will be referring to her as my friend!
Here is what the chairs looked like when they were delivered to her house; she found all six of them on Kijiji for a song. They are heavy, solid wood with beautiful lines, substantial seats, and they are all in fantastic condition!
Before I get into talking about the chairs though, let’s talk a bit about the beautiful fabric and the fun we had finding it!
We made a few trips out to fabric stores together but to be honest the gorgeous floral fabric that was chosen was actually found on our first shopping trip. My friend fell in love with it when we pulled it off the rack and laid it on the table. She took a number of samples home that day, but I think deep down she knew this one would be the winner.
I encouraged her to keep an open mind, that it was our first fabric shopping trip and although the fabric was beautiful she should be open to other possibilities; after all, she was in no rush to get the chairs done. Plus, at this point, we still hadn’t decided on what the seats would look like so I really wanted her to keep all options opened.
However, on the third trip out she was positive that the floral fabric was definitely the one she wanted as her “hero” fabric so we went back to the store to place the order.
Now that that decision was made we turned our attention to finding fabric for the seats and we discovered a few amazing velvets that perfectly matched the different floral colours in the “hero” fabric.
I wish I had snapped a photo of all the colours that we had to choose from but I guess my excitement distracted me from thinking clearly — we felt like kids in a candy store!
After taking a number of samples back to her house, in the end she decided on the turquoise, yellow, and red velvet for the seats. Choosing three colours as opposed to just one, or even two, adds some whimsy and fun to the chairs, which was the direction we were going. And those specific colours were chosen based on what would best work with the art in her dining room.
During the whole fabric shopping and decision making process, I was also spending time in my workshop stripping off the old materials to prepare the chairs for their transformation.
Once I got to this point I wiped them down with warm soapy water, Lysol wipes and then oiled them to make the wood look new again.
Then the real fun began.
I began to build the chairs back up with all new materials — webbing, burlap, foam, Dacron, etc. until I got to the fun stage where I could begin to play with fabric placement.
As for foam size, I used one inch medium density foam on the top of the chairs and three inch high density foam on the seats. The three inch foam was used not only for greater comfort but also to give a really plush look and a higher seat to more comfortably sit at my friend’s dining table. After having tested both a two inch (which is often the standard for dining room chairs) and three inch foam at her table, the three inch was the best fit.
I made a single piping in the floral fabric for the seats and a double piping in the floral fabric for the tops of the chairs. I find that when the fabric has a lot of beautiful pattern and colour going on it is best to keep the trim the same; when the fabric is without pattern a contrasting trim looks great.
I am thrilled with how the chairs turned out! The scroll back design adds some elegance to the overall look and the gently angled back rest will be very comfortable for the long bridge games my friend hosts at her home.
These chairs were definitely a labour of love and at times a bee in my bonnet, but mostly they’ve been an incredible opportunity for me to learn and grow as a person, as a creative, and to test my patience.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my process and seeing all the photos. Are you surprised with the transformation? Please comment to let me know what you think!
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