Monday Made-It: 7/7

Happy Monday, everybody! It's scary to think I only have a few weeks left of this wonderful summer vacation - I have this week at home, next week at the beach, and the following Monday I'll be in my classroom getting it ready for my new kids! I officially report back on July 24th, and kids start August 5th. YIKES! I have a lot to do...and this weeks made-it doesn't actually prepare me for the year, it's just cute! :) The plan is to try to get some stuff done this week, so that I can enjoy my week at the beach without any stress! Anyways, enough chit chat...I am excited to be linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for another Monday Made-It!

This weeks project was actually about revamping an old project, I recovered my desk chair:

Sorry if the picture is a little blurry...I tried retaking
it a few times, but I think it's just the pattern.

This chair has gone through a lot since I first bought it! When I bought it from Pottery Barn it had lime green polka dots to match my Freshman dorm room (ends up, they would have matched my first classroom, too!). Then, I recovered it with navy chevron to match my dorm room my second year of college.

When I bought it, it had green polka dots...then I recovered it with navy chevron!

Since then, the chair has sat in my parents garage and last week my mom came up with the great idea to recover it and have it at my reading table! It was very easy, but I imagine the process would be a little different depending on the chair...

First, I took off the panel that covers the back of the chair (in other words, you'd spin the chair around to see the part not pictured in any of these photos). Keep that panel handy because you need it later!! Once the fabric was off, I took the padding off the back which revealed the hardware that holds the chair together. I grabbed a screwdriver and took the whole chair apart, including taking the wheels off, because it is much easier to handle in small parts. The first time I recovered the chair (with navy chevron), I went ahead and just put the new fabric over the old fabric, puling it tight and using a staple gun to fasten it on the bottom. This time, I took off the navy chevron and put my new fabric over the original green polka dots, pulling tight and using a staple gun to fasten it on the bottom.

Once I had covered both the seat and chair-back, I had to cut away some of the fabric on the back and bottom because it was covering the holes where the hardware attached. Once the holes were visible again, I put the whole chair back together.

With the chair back together, I attached the padding that I had taken off the back using a staple gun. Then, I used the original panel I had taken off the back to trace a new panel with my new fabric. Since I didn't want staples showing, I used fabric glue to attach that panel over the padding on the back of the chair. Voila! The chair feels just like new without having to buy a whole new chair! I bought this fabric on sale at Hobby Lobby, and I already had the staple gun and glue, so the whole thing ended up costing me about $10. Love that!

If you are going to try to recover a chair of your own, I'd love to see before and after pictures! :) If you liked this post, please consider following me by email on the right or reading about how I came up with the name of my blog. Thanks!