The Half-Assed Decorator: Yes You Can: Recovering Upholstered Stools or Chairs

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Yes You Can: Recovering Upholstered Stools or Chairs

Simple when you have a staple gun and some guts. Truly, this is one of those "what's the worst that can happen?" projects. If you cover over the existing fabric (and why not?) and hate it or screw it up, you simply pry up your staples and forget about it.

As I've mentioned before, be on the lookout for precut pieces of fabric or remnants. If you have a Hobby Lobby or Ikea in your area, they both carry tons of decorator fabrics in upholstery weight. Or, as I've mentioned before, keep your mind open. If the pattern you like happens to be on a shower curtain or a deeply discounted duvet cover, it will do just fine. In the video below, I am recovering my Ikea dining room chairs with an orange velour remnant I found at Garden Ridge Pottery. The entire piece (3 yards) was $5.99, which was more than double what I needed for the six chairs. These chairs had seats that popped right out-- they weren't secured in any way, which made the project a snap. Your chairs might be fastened in some way. Take a look at the underside of them. Usually, it's an obvious set of screws, like this:

I bought these barstools off a guy selling old, used office equipment for $5 a piece. I don't remember what they looked like when I got them, but I quickly recovered them with that lovely shower curtain material I had scads of, and it was as easy as finding the screws and removing them.

This will also work on the seat of a wooden chair or barstool, just add some padding first. I spray painted these wooden barstools, then added a piece of circular foam padding and topped it with fabric.

Not the most fabulous barstools in the world, but totally functional, and nearly free, since I already had them in the garage.

Here's how:
(You get to see the HAD here...in what amounts to my pajamas at the end of a long day. One day I'll shoot a video when I'm looking all fresh and pretty.)
http://youtu.be/Lp-Mn77FphY

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What's This About?

I am a professional decorator. Really. A suburban, low-budget one with no formal training, but nonetheless, people do pay me for my work. Some of it can be seen here: http://www.newperspectiveinteriors.net/. When doing a job for a paying client, I try my best not to be Half Assed. After
all, they could be Half Assed themselves for free. But I am always cheap, and can help people over the hurdle of “I just don’t know what to do!” by showing them the big picture. So why would I share my ideas and tricks of the trade with you for free? Well, because I am Half Assed, I don’t do a wonderful job of marketing our business, so we don’t get a ton of work. And
because I like to share. Sharing’s my favorite.

If you hate decorating, this is not the blog for you. If you’re the kind of person who wants fine, quality items, lovingly chosen with care by someone with impeccable taste, and you want a timeless style that will last until you have grandchildren, there probably won’t be much for you here. If you’re a perfectionist, you will be utterly horrified. And if you’re in the market for expensive, rare fabrics and $10,000 window treatments, you may even find my projects awful. But if you love to change things around, mix up your style every few years, try new things constantly, I can help you. If you have almost no decorating budget, I can help you. If you think you have no
creativity or style, you’re not crafty or handy, and you’re sick to death of white walls and overhead lighting, I can help you. These are the tricks I’ve learned by trial and error over the
years, decorating and redecorating my own house, the houses of friends and clients, and office spaces.

I can’t promise to blog with any predictability, but I can promise that if you check in from time to time, you’ll find pictures, projects, ideas and guidance.

I’m not a photographer, and I’m far too Half-Assed to hire one for this blog. So the photos come from my $100 digital camera and may be grainy and poorly lit. My videos will be the same, and also filled with me stumbling over my words, while the phone rings or the dog barks in the background. Sometimes I will be too Half-Assed to get out of my PJs or put on lipstick to film them. But that’s what Half-Assed is all about…doing just that bare minimum to get the job done.