Retro Chair

I spotted this chair at a local thrift store and new I just had to take it home, after all it was only $6!  I was planning on painting, but after further investigation realized the wood was in great shape.  It just needed a little sprucing up with some Old English.  

After doing this chair, I have a whole new respect for reupholsters and realize why it costs so much to get something reupholstered.   This wasn't even anything major, but my fingers are still sore from it as I'm typing right now.

So, here's what it looked like before...

Those beautiful nail heads that I loved so much were a pain to remove.  I painstakingly removed all 956456754444 thousand of them.  Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but seriously there were a bunch.

once all the staples and nail heads were removed, a took the fabric off so I could make a template

Underneath the fabric was just a bunch of batting covering the springs....

So, I used the fabric that I cut previously and stapled it all around the underside of the chair.  This took a little maneuvering to get it in the right place and to work around those legs.  

I decided to keep the top part of the chair as it was.  For two reasons.  First, I love the nail head trim and the fabric was in great condition.  Secondly, I really didn't want to remove all those nail heads and staples.

and altogether...

so there you have it, my first attempt at really upholstering something other than a basic chair cushion.  See that driftwood?  It's my new favorite piece.  I found it for a steal at a local antique mall!  The fabric I used for this chair was also a steal.  I found it at Garden Ridge on sale for $1.99 and that was for 2.5 yards!  I still have lots leftover for another project.  So, total cost for this project was about $8, not too shabby.