Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Chiang Is Good

The other main project I tackled this weekend was the seat and pillow of the white cane chair in our living room, which has been the BANE of my existence since I bought it last summer.

I happened upon this perfect specimen for our living room at HomeGoods one fine day and actually scored a nice discount on it because it was missing its seat cushion. Now, most normal people would walk away from a chair with no seat, but I saw it as an opportunity for a discount thinking the seat would be a cinch.

Looking back, I was wrong. Well, I wasn't wrong so much as uneducated about the proper way to go about getting a seat cushion. I tried a million different foam/fabric combinations and nothing worked. I finally wised up and bought the proper seat cushion and now will be confident (with good reason as opposed to stupidity) when I happen upon another chair in need of a seat. In the meantime, I've spent triple what my discount was (not to mention lots of time)....lesson learned.

But on to the good stuff...

Here's what precious looked like when I brought her home:

 

I knew that I was going to be limited on fabric, so instead of fashioning a true cushion with a full cover, I decided to trace the seat bottom on to a piece of thin plywood. I then attached a piece of foam (pictures below) to the plywood and covered the foam/plywood combo with staples like I would any chair seat - this had the advantage of eliminating any sewing as well as saving fabric yardage because I only had to recover the top of the seat as opposed to sewing a whole cover for a cushion.

 

Lucky for me, the seat popped right out of the bottom and I was able to trace it onto a thin piece of plywood (on the upteenth try...I went through many plywood thicknesses until I realized the thinner the better).
Here's my plywood cut (Carter cut it for me with a jigsaw):


 

I bought a ready-made seat cushion from Joann Fabrics...I initially went the route of buying thick foam and cutting it to the size I needed, but that foam was NOT meant for sitting - it was so hard and thick...another lesson learned. I thought the ready-made cushion was going to be too small, but once covered with the fabric, it actually ended up being OK. I still had to shave it down a bit with a box cutter knife as it was a bit longer than my plywood.

Here is the cushion atop the plywood with the star of the show, my Chiang Mai Dragon fabric.


Before I started stapling dear Chiang Mai to the cushion/plywood combination, I did spray the cushion with a bit of spray adhesive and stuck it to the board to help keep it intact through many tushes.
Then the stapling party began...

 

And after a couple of minutes, my seat was complete!

 

I then took the rest of the yardage and fashioned a very simple pillow to the dimensions I wanted for the back of the chair - I stuffed it with regular ol' pillow stuffing that you can buy at any craft store. I was able to use the exact full yard of fabric for both the seat and a small two-sided pillow.
Here's Miss Chiang all done:


 

And looking fabulous...


20 comments:

  1. Wow, you had a very productive weekend. I love this.....and love the details on how you got the look. You must be so pleased.

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  2. Looks great. Life and decorating is always learning the hard way and as you go isn't it?

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  3. Great job. Thanks for the tip about using a ready made cushion, excellent idea.

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  4. She is looking amazing- what a good use of a yard, it really can go far because it has such a great pattern and fun colors!

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  5. Love this fabric...! I sooo know what it is like when seemingly easy projects seem to take FOREVER! But it looks fabulous- good for you!

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  6. she does look gorgeous too! love a good staple gun project! kg

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  7. We love your DIY project. That chair looks wonderful.We love your blog, we found you through 6th Street Design.

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  8. Wow, your chair looks amazing! I just popped over from 6th Street Design and will be becoming a follow, loving your blog!

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  9. Wow, I love it. Great job....I can't get enough of chiang mai....love the fabric!

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  10. wow! i am in awe. thats such a beautiful chair....swoon!

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  11. This is a wonderful idea for recovering cushions w/out paying the price for reupholstering! Thanks for sharing this.

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  12. Oooooh. She IS looking fab! great use of 1 yard of fabric...sweeeet.

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  13. I have two of those same chairs but in black! : )

    Great job!

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  14. I'm absolutely impressed. Beautiful! Marija

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  15. Chiang Mai in Aqua is my favorite fabric ever, ever! I love it so much that I keep inflicting it on my clients - I just can't help myself! Thanks very much for the posting - your blog is lovely!

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