We then drove south to North Conway where we lodged and did some outlet shopping. Nothing more exhilarating than getting a bargain!
But, our family vacation is done, at least for another week or so, and it's raining here in Maine. So, what better opportunity than now to sit down and blog about a recent project we just completed.
I have three children (as you can see in the above picture), so we are a family of five. We have had our dining table set for 12 years, and honestly, we have outgrown the table and 4 chair set.
Our youngest, poor thing, has still been sitting in his highchair at meal time, because we've only had 4 chairs, and I don't have any folding chairs, etc. that I could pull up to the table, even for a temporary fix. SO, I began looking for a dining set on Craigslist. Yes, you read it right, Craigslist. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a set, as my children are still young, and well anyone with children knows that you don't want anything too nice, as it will get scratched, etc. After a short search, I found a set that looked interesting. I have wanted a table with pedestal leg(s). As much as I would have loved a round table, it just wouldn't fit well in the space we have, so I was looking for a rectangular table with pedestal legs, with additional leaves. I located one about 45 mins. southwest of me. My hubby, as he works in this area, offered to stop by and take a look at it. He found the table to be in decent shape, though one of the pedestals legs was cracked and needed repair. The chairs, of which there were 5, were in great shape. They had upholstered seats, which had been re-upholstered at one time. I knew I would need and want to recover the seats, so that wasn't an issue. So, for $250 we purchased a dining set with 5 chairs.
I wish, oh do I wish, I had taken before photos, but I didn't. The table we actually had refinished, and the pedestal leg repaired, we did not attempt this job. Here's what the table looked like after all that
And the chairs, we had painted a pure white, in semi-gloss finish, as you can kind of see in the photo above. They were the same stain color as the table, but I wanted the chairs to be a different color than the table. No more matchy-matchy set! Once the chairs were all painted, I then began to reupholster the seats. The woman that previously owned the table set did not take off the old upholstery, but rather sewed a new fabric over the old one. So, there was a bit more work involved in removing the two layers of fabric. Here's the fabric that was on the top. If you look closely, you will notice there was also piping.
Once I got that layer off, the original upholstery fabric looked like this
YUCK!
So, I turned the seat over and began to remove all the staples. Now the back of the seat had a "dust cover", so I removed the staples in that to get that off, which then exposed all the other staples that were holding the fabric on, as well as the piping. I removed the piping first. Once I stripped both layers of fabric off, this is what it looked like
I opted to wrap the seat in a light layer of batting, just for good measure. I tried to take the white layer off, but it was adhered to the foam. I didn't want to damage the foam as it was in great shape.
So, I began wrapping the seat in batting,
You literally want to wrap it like a present, adhering it on the back-side with staples. I used my hubby's electric staple gun, and it goes pretty quickly.
I used 1/4" long staples to adhere the batting, but when I applied the fabric, I used 1/2" long staples. You can get both sizes at Home Depot or Lowes.
I then took the seat and laid it on top of my fabric. Fortunately, I was able to get two seats across 54" wide fabric, so I honestly took my fabric, folded it in half and cut on the fold. When cutting across, I made sure to allow enough fabric on both top and bottom to fold over to then staple to the seat. Another option is, save the old upholstered seat cover and trace around that. Since I added an extra layer of batting, I knew I needed my fabric to be a bit wider on all four sides.
I then took my cut piece of fabric and ironed it. I placed the fabric face down and then placed the seat on top of the fabric. Then, I centered the seat on the fabric and began to fold the fabric over stapling it to the bottom on the seat! Be mindful if you are using a fabric with a pattern (stripes, etc.), you will need to determine which way you want the pattern to run on your seat. I wanted vertical stripes, hence the reason I turned the fabric this way.
The fabric, by the way, is Premier Prints Indoor/Outdoor Vertical Stripe Grey Fabric. I ordered this from Fabric.Com. I chose indoor/outdoor fabric as it is washable, which is a must with kids. I also figured it would withstand daily use much better than regular home décor fabric. The fabric was all of $7.50/yard. Now, I did order about 7 yards of fabric, but at some point down the road, we want to make a built-in bench, and would cover the cushion for that with this same fabric. The chair seats only required approx. 2 1/2 yards of fabric.
When I stapled the fabric, I would do one side, and then do the side directly opposite to it.
You want to save the corners for last. Because the seat is not square, it is a bit tricky to fold the fabric in a way that creates minimal fold lines. I just played with the fabric until I got a desired look, and made sure that I did the same type of fold, in the same location on all four corners. Remember, the back corners won't be as noticeable once they are secured to the chair. When you begin the corners, make sure to cut off access fabric. The less fabric you have to deal with the better. Just make sure you leave it long enough to staple to the back side. I actually cut my corners at an angle, like this
Here's what my corners ended up looking like
Here's a shot of the seat:
And, here is the complete set, minus the leaves. We do intend to add one leaf as we need it to place 2 chairs side by side. Right now we have two sides chairs on one side of the table and only one on the other side, but we intend to build a built-in bench that will even things out....I promise. I'm trying hard not to let the fact that things aren't symmetrical, bother me!!!!
What do you think??? Oh, and I should mention, I have big plans for my old dining set. Stay tuned......
