New Office Chair
Hiya! I hope you had a lovely weekend! As gorgeous as the blue skies were around here, I confess I spent little time outdoors. Shame on me, wasting a perfectly fine October weekend indoors. Well I didn’t completely waste it. I just ignored those beckoning blue skies because there is some major fall housekeeping going on around these parts. Plenty of filing kept me occupied. Approximately 93 lonely socks found their mate, and my closet transitioned from blue sky to gray sky weather. Out came the sweaters and scarves and boots, and away went the flip flops, tank tops and swim suits. They live to unflatter another day.
Thankfully my fabric from Tonic Living arrived last week, and I was able to work up a little office chair revamp. I’ve been wanting a swivel chair for some time, and also to add another fun fabric to the space.
I found this dated swivel chair at the thrift store for $5 bucks! I stripped it, painted it, and reupholstered it with a P. Kauffman ‘Soho’ graphic fabric in deep espresso. I was really close to choosing a glossy white crocodile fabric, but with all the white furniture in the room I thought that might be overkill, so I opted for the fun punchy pattern in chocolate and cream.
The first thing I did was remove the base and tape off the rolling feet. I wanted to paint over the oak wood and brass trim because I prefer the legs a more modern glossy cream color.
While the paint dried, I removed the peachy tan tweed like fabric. It was old and oh-so-icky.
It was a surprise and a relief to find the foam underneath was covered in thin plastic, so I saw no need to replace it, since there were no odor issues. All it needed was a little batting. I didn’t feel like adding more tufted buttons like the ‘before’ version because the new fabric was busier plus wanted a sleeker look, so I filled those holes with more batting too.
I fitted the back of the chair with a slipcover in stain resistant outdoor fabric by P. Kauffman that I found at Tonic Living for $10 a yard (they give a 10% discount if you use the code CENTSATIONAL).
I liked the idea of piping where the seams met, so I created enough to go around the back with the zipper foot on my sewing machine.
For a helpful step-by-step guide to piping, read this article on how to create your own cord piping.
I then stitched up a slipcover for the top of the chair, paying close attention to keeping the geometric pattern straight. Always a challenge with patterned fabric ~ you can fudge more with solids but not stripes or squares ! I pinned the piping in between the seams and sewed it all together.
For the last step, I stapled the new fabric to the bottom seat, then screwed it all back together.
Now it sits in my office, adding a fresh modern graphic pattern to this space.
There’s my new office chair, isn’t it so fun?