Old Chair, New Chair

So we have had these hideous kitchen chairs for a while now, and it got to be too much to handle. So mom and I went to JoAnns, got some fabulous fabric (on clearance), and took it upon ourselves to make new chairs.

beginning product. what appears to be bum wearing area,

little house on the prairie print, (not pictured)

poor attachment of whoever put this disaster

of a fabric on before, etc. = HOT MESS

Step 1: take apart said horrendous chairs

step 2: rip old nasty fabric off and find vibrant orange beautiful cushions. They don't match the house, so they had to go... but the buttons explain the bum marks before picture.

step 3: Mom and I were looking for a quick fix, so we filled the button dents with batting

step 4: lay out material, place cushions, cut material to fit (we used square shapes, which proved to be a pain later, but I think it would be harder/riskier to cut to fit)

step 5: go around with a staple gun and start stapling. Key to this: put weight on the cushion and pull fabric tighter than you think you should. As the material relaxes on the chair, and people use it, its going to stretch out and look baggy on the chair if you don't. Our technique? For the second (and quicker half) I stood on the cushion, pulled the fabric, and shot some staples.

Step 6: Now you have this. But it wasn't pretty enough for me. It's hard to see but excessive amounts of material are in the corners, its bunchy, bla bla bla. Fix for this? Glue gun and scissors!

Step 7: Cut all the loose chunks off.

Step 7 continued: glue down the material all the way around!

Step 8: put the chair back together!

We found (after assembling all the chairs) that there

is a side to the legs that says FRONT... if it's not in the "front"

of the chair it will lean. SO if you do this...

Step 9: re-put together all the chairs, correctly.

Step 10: Take a looksie of your fabulous finished chair.

Step 11: Threaten to kill others with tools.

It took longer than expected, but I think thats because I automatically assume all projects take 20 minutes... what project ever takes only 20 minutes?! My back felt like I was dying when we were done but it was totally worth it. Those beauties are... beautiful.

HGTV ain't got nothing on me.