Sunday, November 13, 2011

DIY: Reupholstered Desk Chair

In lieu of dropping a hundred bucks on a brand new desk chair, I decided to give a little attention to the oft neglected middle child of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" trinity and gave reupholstering a whirl this weekend.


With an old Ikea desk chair and my dreams in hand, I got to work. 


*By dreams, I mean that for years I had watched "Trading Spaces" on TLC and imagined that one day I could build my own sofa/couch/bookcase...if I wanted to.


Now. Was. My. Time! 
(Well, kind of)


Here's the before:

Let's just say it's been well loved, as you can tell by the smooshed seat.

I picked a green, vintage-esque fabric that would go great with the dark wood desk providing that lovely pop of color.  





I googled "how to reupholster a desk chair" and found out I needed a Heavy Duty Stapler, which Robert loaned me. All in all, I spent a total of $19 on two yards of fabric, a box of heavy duty staples and a new foam pad. I began the tedious job of staple removing. 




That was probably the hardest part. The factory staples were in this groove that made it difficult to reach. Well, that and I was using an old little pocket knife to take them out because I left my screwdriver at my office. I had a couple scary moments when the knife slipped and I nicked my finger in what ended up being a glorified paper cut. What can I say, I live on the edge. 







 I even covered all the staples with a little homemade piping Not an official term, just literally sewed together a 'pipe' out of the extra fabric and used a hot glue gun to hold in place.



And, now for the after...
(If you scroll slowly, it builds the suspense)



While there are a few spots that are a little 'off', I decided not to be obsessed with perfection. I told myself that I'm going to spend most my time sitting in it, not staring at it. 


So, with that...there's my DIY for the weekend. 


I'm now ready for Monday!

4 comments:

Vicki R. said...

So cute!! Can't wait to see the upholstered couch :)

Unknown said...

It's totally cute! Love the fabric. And I'm with you, those staples are the killer - found that out when I did all 6 of my dining room chairs this summer. LOTS of blisters. I'm so glad you didn't have to do more than that little chair with your pocket knife!

Rob said...

Hey the dude in the office next door has orange chair that could use the same treatment Lay!

Amy D said...

Can't wait to drop by your new office and see it in person!

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