Last weekend I was finally able to complete a project that has been on my list for several months! (sigh of relief)

Last year, when we moved into our new place, we got a dining room set from my parents. It is a small set, but it was free and well made. My mother inherited the set from my great grandmother about 15 years ago (I think). It was the breakfast room table in my parents house until my mom got another table from my grandmother. And it was my great-grandmothers breakfast room table for about 30 or more years before that. (There is a furniture-collecting-addiction problem in my family ;-)… wonder where I got it from?!)

Ever since these chairs came to me, I have been needing to recover them. The fabric on them was basically in a thread-bare state.

I got some remnant Donghia fabric from work in December.

Donghia Wishbone in Celery/Aluminum

Then Geoff got an air stapler for Christmas and at that point I really had no excuse. And yet, its May and I am just now getting to it! 🙂 C’est la vie!

When I took the seats off of the chair frames, I noticed they were very dusty. Initially, I had  planned on just covering the seats with another layer of fabric and leaving the old fabric in place. After seeing so much dust, I decided it might be best to take off the old fabric and replace the padding.

And look what goodies I found underneath…

Yep… that is the original straw padding!

I kept the wood seats, but I couldn’t help being a little sad at the history that I was losing by throwing out the old fabric, etc. Dusty as it may be. So I decided to leave cuttings of each fabric and a little note to whoever might recover them next time! I put down the names of the previous owners and the date.

Then it was time for the new padding. I used this foam, picked up from a local craft store, and some left over batting.

I cut the fabric with a 2″ selvage to be used for pulling while I stapled.

Now, when it comes to stapling… an air stapler is by far the way to go. Geoff and I made our headboard with a hand stapler. Suffice it to say I don’t want to do that again. We reupholstered another chair earlier this year with the new air stapler, but this was my first time using it solo. It did not disappoint.

Geoff was doing some maintenance on our cars, but with the ultra-spiffy air compressor we were able to run two hoses and work at the same time. As the hubs would say, “We couldn’t have done all that without an air compressor!” He is right ladies, and as a bonus, air powered tools are a complete blast to use. Just YouTube it… you will want one too 😉

Here is the finished product:

Now, the chairs are much more comfortable to sit in. And I love the new fabric!

Did you get around to any long overdue projects over the weekend?