DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!
Hi I'm Krista and...
Well, this is my first blogging experience. I have always been kinda interested in blogging but have never thought I would actually get up enough gusto to do it. I wanted to start one to document our little family, major events in our lives, and some projects that we do along the way. So here is goes.
My first major project that I ever did in our house was redoing our old wicker chairs. ( forgive my mediocre picture taking skills :)
We had been using two seats in the kitchen for awhile but family was coming to visit and I realized we may need more places to sit around the table. Whenever you sat down in these chairs you had a sinking feeling you might fall through. Get it, sinking. Anywho, they were looking and feeling a little... well... sad. I did not want to re-wicker the chairs because I don't like wicker for kitchen chairs and it's super expensive, so I decided to take the bottom off and upholster them.
First, I unscrewed the bottom wicker panel off the seat of the chair and painted them a semi-gloss white. We had four chairs and a table so I used a half gallon of paint and a cheap 2" brush. The hardest part was getting in all the little nooks and crannies of the whicker but after two coats they ended up looking pretty good.
After this I measured the bottom of the chair and brought the old metal frame that had been used for the wicker with me to home depot. I found a 3/4" thick panel of plywood and asked them if they could cut it down into squares. I bothered them further by asking if they could cut the angles of the chair for me so I wouldn't have to get a hand saw out at home and cut them myself for what would see like hours :). So I left with trapezoid shaped pieces of wood for the seat of my chairs. After I got home I asked my wonderful husband Stephen if he would cut the corners off the front of them so it would have a nicer rounded edge.
I then went to Joann's and picked out some home decor fabric on sale that I thought would go with the colors of the house and I got some batting and,
foam.
I placed the fabric down on the floor and laid out all my pieces of wood to see how they would fit and I cut about 2" bigger than the wood on all the sides. I did the same with the foam and batting but I cut just enough batting so it would hang over the edges of the wood without feeling rough when you sit down.
After this I ironed out any wrinkles in my fabric and went to stapling.
Here is the finished seat pad after I had done all the stapling. I may have used a few too many staples, but hey, at least we know that fabric is very secure. After this, I used the screws that had originally been used to screw the wicker seats down to the metal frame and I drilled the screws into the wood. It met a little resistance but went in after some manly force by Stephen :).
Here is the final result! Now we have four working chairs that you won't fall through when you sit down :)
Sorry for the lack of detailed tutorial pictures. In my next post I will be sure to get more so I can better explain my next project.
Thanks for reading and see you next time :)
