Chair Week Day 2: Retro Burlap

Welcome to day TWO of of Chair Week here at 551 EAST! 

For those of you are just joining the party,  I took on a massive reupholstering project of reupholstering 4 chairs in 5 weeks.

Yesterday I showed you my Ikat French Provincial arm chair.

Click HERE to see it. 

Today I am going to show you my retro, Anthropologie inspired, burlap chair.

Here's the before:

It was retro- but in a short-squatty, I have no legs and look like I belong in a disco way.

And here's the overhaul!

This chair is deep; you can sink back into it, pull your legs up and snuggle. 

And isn't that the best kind of chair. :) 

Since it is such a deep chair, I wanted to make it compatible for any style or color of throw pillow, so I switched from the coral fabric I originally showed you to this faux burlap.

It has a the look of burlap, but it actually is quite soft and much more durable.

The tufted buttons and piping are done with cream canvas.

The chair had no legs when it was given to me, so we added those.

They were purchased from Home Depot and I stained them with Minwax Mission Oak using a sponge brush to achieve the uneven, aged look.

And do you want to know a secret? 

This chair was upholstered as if I was making a slipcover, but not quite. 

It's all stapled to the chair, which means it's not removable for washing, but it doesn't shift or need to be adjusted like most slipcovers.

I wouldn't have been able to do this chair without the amazing sewing skills of my friend Kayla. 

We semi followed some tutorials, but really we made a lot of our own modifications. 

That would be the biggest tip I could give you about reupholstering.

It's important to do your research, but no two chairs are the same so be ready to experiment till you get it right. 

Here are the tutorials I found most helpful for this chair.

Slipcover: Click HERE

Piping: Click HERE and HERE

Legs: Click HERE

(Most of the tutorials I'll be sharing are from other amazing blogs and websites that I followed and found the be the best out there. Because of the tight time frame (and self-induced stress) I was under, I didn't feel like I could give you amazing tutorials and amazing chairs. :))

See you tomorrow!

For more info look under THE SHOP tab at the top of the page.