Can I put chairs everywhere?
Several weeks ago one of my favorite interior design bloggers told me I was having so much luck with chairs lately. That is true. I must confess that I'm also a bit obsessive with searching until finding exactly what I'm looking for. I try to ignore minor flaws that usually can be converted to enhance hidden beauty. A wonderful accent chair or smaller club/lounge chair can give an area some instant charm. I especially prefer older chairs refinished, reupholstered, slipcovered, and redesigned with timelessness in mind.
Here are my most recent older chair re-dos plus a recap on two previous chair finds.
1) Never floral button tuft me again!
About six years ago an accent chair was found by moi at the Austin Antique Mall. That chair's makeover project is finally completed. Actually, it sat in that mall well over a year before my "girl you better get that chair!" attitude changed its fate. I was slow as a snail to buy it and even slower to re-do it. Of course this was before the big seeking used-furniture craze got competitive and as popular as it is today. I am aware that people have been buying used-furniture for decades, but not like they do now. On the weekends every thrift furniture store I walk into is packed with people and the funny thing is the prices keep going up even though the old items need some serious WORK!
The issue with this particular chair was I couldn't decide what to do. It sat looking as you see it below for a long time. I would throw a leopard print microfiber remnant over it to hide its
Surprise!
When I started to remove its past I found orange velvet on the seat and an old fashion upholstery job.
I stripped it down to the frame and put my painting skills to work. At first I painted it solid white, but that was to stark. So I changed my mind and distressed the white. I thought that was a bit boring for this chair, so I let it sit in a corner for over a year incomplete and unable to be used. Then last January before we moved into our townhouse, I was smitten by the gorgeous light neutral painted accent chairs I'd seen in magazines like Veranda and my favorite, House Beautiful. So I decided a pale grey distressed-finish is what it really needed and put my painting skills to work again.
One thing I will admit is… Elena can paint her tail off but she CAN'T do an upholstery job!
After we settled in and I figured out what to do with the living-dining area, I delivered the painted frame to Long Upholstery Service here in Austin on North Lamar Blvd. I had the perfect fabric for this chairs new look... a thick basket-weave Libeco linen. Long's is popular with some old-school interior designers and antique dealers in the area. They do great work with the best prices in town and don't have you wasting money purchasing too much fabric yardage. One reason I hesitate to buying new upholstery pieces (not just because of having carte blanche taste with a piggy bank budget) is because I am a huge fan of using COM and unfortunately that part of an upholstery budget can get ridiculous when you are not a member of the trade. Most furniture manufacturers ALWAYS require too much fabric yardage.
Here she sits re-done in her new threads. I really like that she is neutral to be able to coordinate with whatever the future unfolds. I added a throw pillow made with Ralph Lauren Leopard Sand fabric, which is also on the cushioned seat of an iron bench in our living room.
Don't you just love that concrete floor waiting for its wood?
2) Please slipcover me!
The next two chairs are old-school Norwalk Sophie wing chairs that require a slipcover but sat around naked for years. My intention was to have washable slipcovers made a long time ago, but it just didn't happen. I bought a few yards of a heavy white linen for each chair. I washed, dried and threw that on as a cover. A lazy, crazy, throw on cover indeed. The good thing is I now know that particular white linen washes and wears like iron, if I ever desire white slipcovers. Here is one chair without the lazy cover to show the shape and these chairs didn't come with a muslin cover on the seat cushion either. I was using a cut up sheet until I could make up my mind on the slipcover fabric.
Good grief, it looks ghetto!
The problem was indecisiveness over what fabric to buy. I love French Country interiors, but I've been a Ralph Lauren fabric fanatic since he came on the American interior design scene back in the 1980s. I think he use to lean more toward combining classic interiors of the United Kingdom with Americana, but now my opinion is he has developed his own American sophisticated flair that is influenced by a multitude of world cultures. Ralph Lauren Home has fabrics that are linen, denim, wool, silk, corduroy, matelasse, damask, velvet, mohair, stripe, floral, botanical, embroidery, paisley, ethnic, animal print, tweed, check, plaid and tartans… galore! RL has so many fabulous choices, but of course most were not actually meant for piggy bank budget shoppers like myself.
At least not until eBay!
At least not until eBay!
After moving into our townhouse my first plan was to have all upholstery pieces either in white, or light neutral linens. Seeing that style for years in magazine features and visiting beautiful antique shops like The Gray Door when in Houston had started to influence my interior choices. But laying large samples of solid white, off-white, and light grey-beige fabrics around this townhouse to stare back at me over the past four months, caused the living area to scream for some color. I've painted most of the furniture in lighter neutrals, giving the area an easy background. I have also painted many accessories, changing them from being dark to light.
I just could not make up my mind, so instead of spending more money on fabric yardage I decided to have the needed slipcovers made using a vintage RL striped linen upholstery fabric. I'd been hoarding 28 yards of that linen on a bolt for too long. Years ago I got lucky and found it on eBay, paying only 56 dollars for ALL and just another 18 dollars for shipping. It was suppose to go on my old slipcovered sofa (eight years ago) but instead it suddenly went in a closet because some obsessive woman I know went beige. Ha!
For this project I HAD TO bring in the big guns because my sewing skills and patience would have had these stripes leaning and waving at you.
Shabby Slips of Austin was founded by designer Sara Scaglione in 1994. The once small boutique has grown from making custom slipcovers and selling antiques into a "...full service Interior Design showroom where clients can come and experience the classic, timeless interiors that are shown throughout the space." (from Shabby Slips website )
Stepping into the showroom you can see and feel what I call Austin's classiest representation of interior design mixing the old with the new. In there you will find real casual elegance. The showroom's appearance is so gorgeous and inviting that it MAKES you desire to use white upholstery fabric. But I chose to stand firm by some color for now.
Personally, I believe their labor prices are spot-on. I gave them my fabric. They washed and preshrunk the yardage, then came out to my house and cut the fabric to fit the chairs properly and matched the stripes perfectly. After watching this first stage of making slipcovers I felt confident in choosing them for the job. There are probably other places that will make slipcovers around Austin for less. There is even one place out in Dripping Springs that wanted to charge me double the price of Shabby Slips, which is OUTRAGEOUS! (I will not mention their name) Another popular business didn't take me seriously and never answered my inquiry. (I won't mention their name either) Some people think getting a custom slipcover made should come cheap and that may be good enough to get by for them, but not in my house. I wanted quality workmanship and for my minor project to be respected.
Which is why I say:
If you...need superior made slipcovers for your furniture...want good customer service...desire for them to be beautiful in your home...and are near Austin, Texas...visit Shabby Slips gorgeous showroom and indulge in their services.
The stripes line up perfectly.
The two Sophie wing chairs are no longer naked and colorful slipcovers, though OUT of style in the interior magazine world, are back IN style at my petite maison. Well, at least until next spring when I have Shabby Slips make another pair of slipcovers for these chairs. Perhaps by then I will be screaming for white.
The chairs are English country rather than French, but they will work for a while. I am looking for a nice fabric to make two small kidney pillows for the chairs. I have thought of using the matching fabric (there is plenty of leftover yardage) but that might be a bit too much. I'd prefer to lighten up the chair center. I wish to find a beautiful tapestry or border remnant in Round Top this week, to use with a solid linen. Or, perhaps two pillows already made like this Ankasa 12x18 Bali chintz linen and embroidery pillow.
3) Am I too old to change?
I have admired the look of a painted 18th century chair for a while, but when it came to buying one, the price tags were too heavy for my light budget. Often I would sit back and wonder where do most interior designers who refinish, reupholster and sell these beautiful redone antiques find the old chairs at? One lucky day my question was answered… perhaps at an estate sell or antique auction!
(Austin Auction photo)
I just happened upon this 18th century chair last spring while browsing through an upcoming auction inventory on Austin Auction's website. The starting bid was only 80 dollars! Yippee for me! I was so excited, but worried that someone would outbid me and snatch him away. I put my max bid in at only 200 and he went for a blink over 100 to that winning bidder... Moi!
After getting him home I couldn't decide whether to paint him or not? Every solid linen fabric I owned looked boring sitting across his lap and he told me that he must be wearing something natural, but in a stripe.
The seat cushion lifts out and was built up the old fashion way with wood, tied springs, jute webbing, cotton batting and horse hair. But it was worn out, plus the muslin cover was old and soiled. I took the seat cushion to Long's and had them re-do it using a current RL linen Ice House Stripe - Jet. It only needed one yard and I found that on eBay for just eleven dollars! Yep you read that right 11.
(Ralph Lauren Home)
Then I made simple throw pillow cover out of another vintage RL fabric I have been hoarding, which coordinates the RL linen on the two slipcovered wing chairs. I wanted something floral. He'll have to get over being paired with these old traditional flowers until spring.
I decided against changing him with paint. The area needs some dark stained wood and he does look great for his age. Update: that pillow must go!
And after slipcovering the two wing chairs I made another pillow using the green background and placed it on the light-grey painted chair. The space needed the colors that is on the pillows. Below in the far right corner you can also see a piece of my taped off section for a future new sofa. My hubby calls this... "the dead sofa crime scene investigation area."
Between the two pillows I prefer the green background, so I may make another like it for the dark wood chair.
4) The other old-new chairs
Antique country French dining chairs with seats recovered in linen.
Master bedroom French chair reupholstered in Belgian linen.
Well, by adding all of this with my kitchen comfort plan read here I am out of space for chairs and that is not fun nor a fact that I wish to embrace. Because... I keep running across other great older chairs with potential of being fabulous and worth someone using in their home. Perhaps a hobby business is calling?
We shall seat!
We shall seat!
~
Here are my favorite sources for finding high-end upholstery fabrics at affordable prices on eBay...
Till next time
~
After all is said and done, sit down.
- Bill Copeland
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