Stripey Chair

I inherited a little chair from a friend of mine who lives in Boise.  I've never been to Boise, but we are friends nonetheless.  We "met" online several years ago through a mutual friend.  Anywho, last time she was up visiting, she asked if I wanted to take this little chair off her hands.

I said yes, of course.  Fast forward about 4 months, and I actually did something about making it look a little nicer.

The original fabric was a bear and balloon print, circa 1985.  I wanted to use what I had around, so I grabbed this red and white striped material and some dark purple linen for the sides and back.  I didn't have enough to do the same fabric all over, but I kind of like the patch-work look of it.

This is the first time I have "recovered" any furniture, unless you count throwing a sheet over an old couch.  So things are not as tight and neat as I would have liked.  Still happy with the results though.

Basically, I just unscrewed the arms and then removed the staples holding the cover onto the chair.  Ripped out all the seams, traced the pattern pieces onto my new fabric, sewed it up following the original sewing lines, added a little more batting to the seat and back, painted the arms and base white (they were a not-so-great odd wood-color before), reattached everything, and presto!

You can tell I was determined to get this done since I spray-painted the wood pieces when it was about 45 degrees outside.  It was at least not snowing.  You have to take what you get in terms of weather when you live in Idaho.

And like all things you do for your children, they were less than impressed.  I showed the kids the newly redone chair I asked, "Do you like it?  Do you want to sit in it and read?"  They responded with a "meh" and went about their business.  That's ok.  I still like it.  And they do sit on it to read or stand on it to look out the window to check the weather.