R is for...

R is for reupholstered chairs! In the category of "furniture begged from the families," we got a lot of chairs and such from the Tallahassee grandparents since they have recently down-sized into an apartment from their giant, raised-a-family-in-it house. However, both in the interest of cleanliness and of fabric choices, John and I wanted to reupholster the chairs.

John's mom had a connection that hooked us up with a great upholsterer (upholstererererer... I sound like an engine trying to turn over!) who did a fabulous job on everything! We just got the last piece back on Friday and I am love them all!

The goose-neck rocking chair that our mothers have a weird fascination for. John's mom tried to steal it a few times, and my mom keeps saying it's good for rocking babies as if she is hinting at something. :/ (Before on left, new on right)

We initially weren't going to redo the rocker, as the fabric wasn't terribly bad; we just sent it off to be cleaned. But, the upholsterer said that he couldn't take the fabric off to tighten up the wood frame without destroying the fabric. Our options were redo the fabric or have a "display only" chair with the old fabric. I instantly had flashbacks to Jamestown and Williamsburg tours where all the chairs were period antiques and were not allowed to be sat upon. Do you know how traumatic it is for a small child with bad knees to be dragged all over creation, then paraded in front of chairs she can't sit on?!!? Needless to say, we redid the rocker so the frame could be tightened and strengthened.

The living room chairs, before

This fabric is shiny and doesn't photograph accurately. In real lighting in our house, the color is somewhere between these two pictures. This was my fabric choice that went out on a limb since it's a little weird. I wasn't exactly sure how the sea-foam/ teal color would be on an entire chair. But I think it turned out fine. (and yes, I know that each chair matches the loveseat and the rocker, but they do not match each other. We are still figuring out placement, possibly going to move one chair down to the basement.)

This red chair is my favorite! John says it looks like an executive's power office chair. :) When we were picking fabrics, this was the only one I was sure I wanted. AND, John says it's mine since he doesn't like wingback chairs! woot! (The fabric is "railroaded" with the stripe, having about as much texture as corduroy)

This loveseat was the problem child of the bunch. The cushion was nonexistent and and support underneath was pretty bad, too... AND I have always disliked this fabric. The silk is pretty, but you slide right off of it when you try to sit down! What good is a chair that you can't sit on? (I feel like I can express these opinions because Grandmother said the exact same thing to me the other day. She never liked the silky couch either!) John was worried about the button-tucks, too, and how much trouble they would add. We eventually picked a cream, linen-looking fabric since any pattern would be lost in the buttons.

After! Doesn't it look so much better?! There's just enough shine in the fabric that it still looks like the old silk, but it is ten times better to sit on! :)