Tah Dah!

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you the newly recovered 99p chair.

Just so you don't have to go scrabbling around this is what it looks like before.

It isn't perfect but I do think it is a pretty good first attempt at upholstery.

I am not going to go into how I did it as I would look a fool and there are hundreds of descriptions on more accomplished blogs out there. Suffice to say these things I learnt along the way.

1. Your hands will hurt and look pretty ugly during the process. I am not a hands and nails kind of girl at all but they did look pretty dreadful. Nail and staple scratches are not pretty.

2. Take your time and take photos as you remove the old fabric. (This works better if you don't have your phone stolen with the photos on it.)

3. Label and number the pieces of fabric as they come off. You want to put them back in reverse order.

4. Iron the old fabric and lay it out on the floor so you can work out how much fabric you need. (This is revolting but essential.)

5. Decide whether the last person who covered the chair knew what they were doing. If yes follow them if no follow them and use your commonsense to make adjustments. There are at least two parts that I really wish I'd done this.

6. You will use a lot of staples.

7. GO SLOWLY! Tack each piece of fabric in place with a few staples and check it is right before properly stapling it in place. It is a pain to take out 30 staples just because it all needs to shift 1cm to the right.

8. Doing your own upholstering is cheaper than hiring a professional but it is not really cheap. Yes you may well get the chair for a bargain  but upholstery fabric is expensive and your will need more than you imagine. I did splash out on Jorja Wilkinson fabric because I have been yearning to used her denim owl fabric for ages and as the chair had cost so little I felt I could justify it. This place will help keep fabric costs down: www.curtainfactoryoutlet.co.uk/

9. It may well be worth giving the chair a bit of new padding. Ebay has loads of cheap sheet wadding. This also has the advantage of being fire retardant so will give you peace of mind. I didn't want to attempt removing all the old padding and springs as I know my limits and it was all in good condition. However giving it a covering of wadding freshened the whole thing up.

10. It is really addictive. "I'll just do this little bit and then I'll stop. Oooh! Look how nice it looks. I'll just do that little bit......Ooooh! Look! It's starting to look like an actual CHAIR and it's 1am and the neighbours are getting annoyed at the sound of the staple gun........"

11. A pair of long nose pliers are very handy as you tug the fabric through the slots in the frame.

12. I have a very patient Matey who came and said nice things every single time I called him upstairs to show him the new bit I'd just done. He also managed to not point out that I looked crazy as I stood looking at it with what can only described as a  bear stare while saying absently that I'd come to bed in a minute.

My new bits and bobs box restoration- Part 4 Upholstering

One of the things that attracted me to this box in the first place was the padded top. I like things to have more than one purpose.

So having cleaned, scrubbed, painted and waxed this box into a rather handy thing to have around I had to tackle upholstery. I am no upholsterer. But I have nailed fabric to wood with a bit of padding before so I was determined to make it work this time.

As a technique this was successful if not correct. More importantly it was easy and I was able to do it with no help.

Cut out your fabric so that you have a margin of just over the depth of the foam (loads of places on ebay to get pre-cut foam). Fold the edge of the fabric over and iron it flat. This will help you get  neat edge.

 At this stage it feel like you haven't cut the fabric big enough. Don't worry! Place the box (or whatever it is you are covering) upside down on top of the foam:

 (At this point you really will be losing faith in the size of the fabric. Trust me!)

With care kneel on top the the box so that you can push down the foam just enough to nail one upholstery pin in into the centre of each side.

(Yes you will be looking daft right now as your bum will be in the air and your face will be getting slightly red from being upside down.)

Put another 2 pins in on each side to get the fabric evenly stretched:

 Start hammering pins in all round the fabric. I find it easier now to right the box up and gently push down on the fabric covered foam till it is in the right place:

 Top Tip: If you are using a fabric that has a right way up do make sure that you have the correct way for the furniture....Ahem I may not have done this:

 I had to unpick everything and go back to the start so things were not as neat as they would have been.

Anyway once you have got everything pinned in place it's time to tackle the corners. They are not as tricky as they seem.

Take one of the sides of fabric, fold it over the edge and snip it about 2 cm in from the edge:

On the other side of the flap cut a corresponding snip and remove the small square of fabric:

Hold the first fold down and carefully fold the second part over to make a nice tight fold and pin. It is worth not hammering it in too far so that you can fiddle with it a bit to make it neat.

Once you are happy you can finish it all off:

Do the other three corners.

Top Tip: It is neater to fold the same way each time. I had the fabric from the short edges of the box fold inward first followed by the long edges.

After a month we finally have a fully restored box. Hooray! Time for some before and after shots....

I was going to take some snaps of the inside empty and pristine but who am I kidding? This is as tidy as it will ever be. It is a working box you know.

Restoring a leather sofa

Our old green sofabed has been looking a bit sad while. Despite cheerful blankets draped over the back and slightly bonkers cushions nothing was hiding the fact that it was just a bit tired. The snag is that a new one ain't cheap.

Eyes peeled for a bargain then....On the way home from work one Friday I decided to take a mini detour via Criterion Auctions. It's a good place for a bit of a rummage. I usually find loads of things I would love to buy but sense prevails when I remember that I have nowhere to put them. This time I spotted a small dark brown leather sofa. Not in great condition but nothing that a bit of TLC wouldn't fix. A little more investigating revealed that it was originally from the Conran shop. This was a bit of furniture that somebody had probably spent a good few grand on. Well worth putting a bit of effort into restoring.

The next day my matey and I went for another look with the practical hats on and wielding a tape measure. Now here is the thing. Being sensible we needed another sofabed. In a small house,even with a spare 'oom, having an extra bed is handy. But we really, really liked it and the old sofabed really, really was looking dreadful. In the end we agreed to put a very cheeky bid on and see what happened.

To cut a long story short. We won! The auctioneers pointed us in the direction of a nice chap who would deliver it and it was with us by 7am the next morning. All for just over £100.

In-situ it looked better than I imagined.  The dust had been blown off in the move. The feather cushions had been plumped up so they looked a hundred times better. In proper light I could see that the leather is a really lovely dark brown, worn in places but nothing that wasn't fixable. Naturally I spent at least half an hour playing with cushions and blankets and poking and prodding before admitting that I really did need to go to work.

This weekend I knuckled down and started cleaning it and touching up the scuff with this rather good stuff: Liquidleather.com . (Not cheap but it does work well.)  A few hours later and it looked a bit like this.

 

An awful lot better.  We decided that we liked the slightly battered look so deliberately left some of the worn parts alone. (I suspect some people pay a fortune to have a 'gently worn' look added on!)

Now my only problem is deciding on accessories. We have a rather bonkers collection of cushions which may not be to everybodies taste but we like a cheerfully eclectic mix:

The cats drinking tea and the worried owl cushions are from Lush designs and the fish one Jorja Wilkinson. (It's actually a homemade one make from left over fabric but she does sell cushions as well.)

 The main thing to decide is blanket or no blanket:

Without the blanket it does look more stylish. BUT!

With the blanket it looks cosier.

At the moment the blanket is winning as it is lovely to be able to pull a blanket over yourself if it's feeling a bit nippy. Nothing at all to do with the freezing weather! 

A few of my favorite things...and meeting new people.

I have spent the last week at the trade show Spring Fair in the company of a number of very lovely and talented designers. Towards the end of the show we all went on a bit of a shopping spree. I have to remind myself at these times that I do not have an unlimited budget but a few purchases may have been made.....

Tobyboo is a company I have known for a while. I first saw the Oranges and Lemons cushion in the Museum of London and thought it was fabulous! Then I met the designer Tina who is equally fabulous. But I still resisted. This time though I gave in. I've been looking for a new cushion anyway so why not? I ummed and aahed over the original design and the newer latte version before deciding that the original one was cheerier and so what if it clashes a bit with the other cushions. It can sit on it's own on the comfy chair.

I spotted these Dutch house cabinets from The Original Metal Box Company 18 months ago and nearly succumbed then. They are just too lovely and handy as well. The trouble is that I don't want one. I want all three....possibly more...in an splendid streets worth. A few pennies to save.

I should say that they may not a cheap purchase but they are worth every penny. Beautifully made and designed in Britain.

Finally my next door neighbour at the show, fabric designer Jorja Wilkinson. Standing next to a designers beautiful work for five days it is inevitable that something becomes a must have. Being a clever woman she also hand-makes a range of lampshades and cushions with her fabric so you can buy some of the look without having to get your sewing machine out.

I spent so long trying to decide which pattern I liked most and where would I put it I was in danger of buying her whole stand and redoing the whole house to work with it all. In the end sense prevailed and I plumped for ordering some of her fabric for a purpose I will reveal another day......

....oh and I should say that she is a jolly nice person to stand next to for five days as well. Somebody with a 1930's Cricket pavilion for an office/workshop can hardly fail to be fun to chat with! (Tiny bit envious there....)