A New Antique Chair

Yesterday we said goodbye to our beloved denim chair and now that we have dried our eyes, we are able to welcome the new fabulous antique chair!

This chair, as I said yesterday, came from my grandfather; he was saving it for someone who would love it and show it the attention it deserved.  Mama and I love it!  She brought it home and lived with it for a while before we decided that it would look perfect in my office if it was recovered in a nice gray velvet.  I admit, I am velvet obsessed!  Is it obvious that I don’t have children?!  Anyway this is my last velvet project until my retirement.  Haha!  No, I’m serious!  I told Mama there was a moratorium on velvet!  :)

We finally found some affordable velvet in the perfect color gray (to coordinate with my wall color and general black/gray-ness of the office decor.  Haha!  Can you decorate around computer equipment?  Why sure!  Once we got the fabric, I gave Mama a head start on the chair.  She got a lot accomplished before she needed my help.  :)

In its former life it was brownish-orange corduroy… please stop following my blog if I ever upholster anything in corduroy.  Yuck.

Once Mama started tearing it down, she discovered that before it was orange it was cream floral!

After tearing it down and restaining all the exposed woodwork Bombay Mahogany (the only color as far as I’m concerned) she began adding new batting to the seat and new webbing to the back.  Old chairs are never comfortable so we built this one up with new materials so it would be extra plush!

Next, she used the old fabric pieces to cut new ones and re-stapled them in the appropriate spot.  My Mama knows her way around an upholstery project.  Me = clueless.  But I help pull out staples and pull on the fabric when it needs to be tight and generally tell her when things are crooked or lumpy and need to be redone.  :)  Slave driver.

The back had all new batting rolled into shape and stuffed tightly into each section of the tufted back.  Then I stitched down the seam of each section through the upholstery layers into the back webbing so everything was nice and tight. 

At the top of the back, the fabric had to be gathered in and stapled just so.  The edges around the “wings” also had to be gathered in around the plump stuffing.  It was touchy… more reasons not to use velvet.  Sorry Mama! :)

All the exposed edges on the front and wings were finished off with double welt cording. 

And voila!  We’re finished:

I wrapped it up and carefully loaded it into the back of my car and brought it home with me that evening! 

Here it is in its new home.  The dark stain on the chair matches the desk perfectly.  The wood is really a rich, dark brown, but it looks black in this picture.

I love all its curves and the shiny finish!  Ahh, it’s gorgeous!

And of course, it wasn’t in the house five minutes before Bandit had climbed up to test it out.

It is Bandit-approved. :)

I will miss the denim chair, but this one is so perfectly suited for the office! Love it!  I’m still deciding if it needs a little pillow friend or perhaps a tiny side table?  We’ll see…