I'm so happy! Upholsterer mentor Rollin came by tonight to offer his critique of the barrel chair project I recently wrapped up. The exciting news is, my skill status has officially been upgraded from "amateur" to "enthusiast" and for me that's exciting!
Oh sure, there's a long way to go to get to the point where I could call myself a professional upholsterer, but, I'm getting better with experience, and quite frankly the quality of work I'm doing isn't bad, especially given the projects I've been working on have been rather complicated - although I am ready for something easy! With all of that said, I'm very much enjoying my time learning this craft and am looking forward to the next project that shows up on my doorstep.
While working on this turn-of-the-century barrel chair project I've come up with a good motto, one that I'll get to soon but first, to borrow from Paul Harvey, the rest of the story...
Here's a project I've taken on and at the outset felt as though I'd wrap it up within a week. I mean, how hard can it be, I'm just putting the seat back together - of course there's the unknown issue of needing to 8-way tie the springs underneath the seat based on the "before" picture. Also pictured here is the final product for comparison.
Yes, the before image looks a bit sad and has a few wrinkles but overall how hard could it be to simply replace the covering, put new gimp on, and bang in a few decorative nails? It wasn't as difficult nor time consuming as the last project but this one made me scratch my noggin a few times. I thought I'd approach this project with a systematic approach I might use to solve engineering problems like I do on a daily basis at work. Having torn it apart and 8-way tied the springs, I contacted my mentor and invited him to come share an adult beverage with me presenting an opportunity to ponder the issues this chair would pose. I was pleased when Rollin said I had done a good job with the spring tying - and had I knotted the strings where they crossed outside of the springs I might have even tied them as well as he would have. But by that point my mind was replaying his compliment that my work was "acceptable" and was relishing in the fact he hadn't proceeded acceptable with "not" nor "un" as in this is simply unacceptable!
During conversation over dinner one evening with friends the topic of my interests in upholstery came up. To make a long story short, Dave and Dianne had a favorite mudroom chair in need of attention and asked if I'd be willing to take it on as a project. A few days later Dave dropped it off and Dianne approved of the material I suggested we use.
To describe the chair as "rickety" would be an understatement! I'd guess nearly every joint was loose but, nothing was broken, although one of the rear legs had a slight lateral crack which could be repaired at a future date if deemed necessary. The seat was covered with a hard plastic, I want to say it was vinyl but it looked and felt more like a plastic table top cover from the 1970's - nothing like the soft and supple vinyl upholstery materials available today. The chair was also a causality of being in the wrong place on at least one occasion, it was covered with a white paint overspray, probably from being in a room that was being painted with a roller.
Perhaps it's the false sense of confidence that led us down this path, or maybe it's the request of a family member who asked if we'd recover their La-Z-Boy recliner, either way, we decided to take on a project of an entirely different magnitude from what we're used to working on! Until now, we've made new slip seat covers, bags, a few pieces of furniture but nothing that required more than a couple of pieces of fabric sewn together. This project brought a host of new issues, such as tufting, the art of placing buttons in a pattern on the front side of the chair's back and of course, covering the buttons in the first place. And then there's the issue of sewing many pieces of fabric together to get it to fit over the chair - something on the order of about 45 individual pieces of fabric that we had to cut and sew together!
The good news is, everyone is really happy with the outcome of this project! Shown here are "before" and "after" pictures. The new covering is a microfiber suede, which posed a new issue for us of having to contend with a directional nap in the fabric - once we determined the direction the nap was running, we were able to keep track of top of each piece as we cut it by placing a staple in what would be the seam allowance for that piece.
Have you ever watched a herd of human children run rampant through your living room? Playing tag, or follow-the-leader, or perhaps let's-jump-on-all-the-furniture? Yes, that'd be the image I want you to put in the back of your mind as you read this article.
You see, here's a perfectly good ottoman that was once subjected to some punishment - while I can't prove it, I can speculate on how the damage might have originally occurred. Given the household where this piece of furniture came from I'd say there's a high probability the damage stems from some small creature, or one of her friends, who shall remain nameless at this point. Or I suppose it could have resulted from an extremely heavy individual who may have inadvertently plopped themselves down on it without regard to finding the center of the frame, but this option if far less likely.
I'm delighted to say this project has been completed! Lots of learning opportunities and it provided good reasons to buy new toys. ;-)
All that's left is to make arrangements with Habitat for Humanity to deliver this beautiful piece of furniture but there are two little problems... you see, I made the mistake of moving if from the basement into the living room near the Christmas tree. The following morning the three females I live with were all giddy, well, I guess I really shouldn't speak for the dog, but the wife and daughter we pretty excited about it and its transformation and the dog seemed to be just as happy.
We've decided to hold onto the chair for a few more days as we have out of town family coming and we could use the extra furniture but after Christmas really need to move this chair along as promised.
OK, technically speaking it's been more than a day since this project started but... WOW!!! The chair is beautiful!
At first, I was somewhat concerned the color combination of the chair and piping weren't going to go over but those concerns vanished the moment I sewed piping into the seat cover.
Tami's husband Wyman took on the tasks of woodworking and frame restoration and to his credit, he did a terrific job. I'm sure Tami will be delighted.
This project provided a few new learning opportunities, it turned out great, I'm impressed, and pleased with the outcome, and I hope Wyman and Tami will enjoy the chair for a lot of years to come!
Someone recently asked where I've been. My thoughts immediately went to, "nowhere" as that's about the only place I've been the past couple of years. But that's not what this person wanted to know. You see, the last time I posted anything to this website was about 2 1/2 years ago! A more fitting title of this post should be, "How Did That Happen?!!!"
Since someone is looking at this site it only seems reasonable that we should keep it updated. There's been a LOT of water under the proverbial bridge in the past couple of years so I'll try to keep this article brief in an attempt to catch other up on the status of Russ & Alan's adventures!
First, we've been busy. Not only learning upholstery and leather skills, but with our personal lives, with work, and family. Alan is now a "second-time" grandfather, still working full-time, and engages in upholstery and leather work as his schedule permits. I on the other hand wrapped up teaching a few months ago and am currently enjoying retirement - although I feel I'm more busy than I ever was when working at the university. My youngest child graduated college and was recently accepted into grad school - talk about an increase in stress levels! There's no question, her mother and I are going to miss her terribly... at least for a few weeks...
Second, and back to upholstery work, oh my goodness, the last posted article was such a long time ago! I've worked on a lot of projects since and will try to start posting a few pictures to keep with the mission of this site, documentation of our adventure.
Last, so yes, Alan and Russ are both still alive, as is our hobby making and repairing things. I can't speak for Alan here but I'm proud to be a "maker" - of course, I was a maker before being a maker was cool! I think Alan was as well. Remember, we're both old guys who know how to make and fix stuff!