Operation Make Chairs More Comfortable and Beautiful

I embarked upon a mission with my best friend Hannah last Friday. The mission you ask? Operation make chairs more comfortable and beautiful. It all started when I bought a table and six chairs from Craig’s List (very successful endeavor I might add). Upon getting everything home I realized that the chairs were quite uncomfortable, quite like sitting on a piece of plywood. Well, let’s face it that is all it was: a piece of plywood masquerading as a nice place to rest your bum.

I quickly began to gather supplies that would not completely empty my wallet. I found some great fabric for half price at a local craft store but when I went to look at batting and foam to place inside the fabric, I realized that this could get expensive quite quickly seeing as I would need several layers of batting so my search began for the fix. Where did I find such a thing? IKEA! I found some particularly unattractive (sorry if you like them) chair cushions that were on clearance for about $2.00 a piece so I bought six of them. I figured it would be pretty easy to rip off the fabric and use the foam inside. I soon enlisted Hannah so that if I went down, it would not be alone.

D-Day arrived with much warning from Hannah’s husband. Yes, apparently the staple gun is a tricky tool and much explaining and warning was needed. Thank you Carson. Hannah and I set to work as we quickly cut out the fabric we would be using to recover the chairs, took the ugly fabric off of the cushions I purchased, and removed the old fabric and single layer of batting under that. We had made it thus far without being injured so we figured we would venture on into the wilderness of home décor that lay ahead.

We trimmed the cushion to fit the plywood and then placed the single layer of batting over that. Next came putting one staple in each side of the batting to secure it in place. We then stretched the fabric over everything and stapled it down using many staples on all edges and corners. When we had reached the fifth or six chair, dazed by the tedious nature of stretching and stapling, Hannah placed the wrong end of the staple gun on the wood and began to pull the trigger. This left the stapling side dangerously close to her leg. Like something out of a movie my words tumbled out of my mouth in slow motion, “Haaannnaahhhh…Nnnnnnooooooooo!” She jolted from her monotonous train of thought and her leg was spared the puncture wound of an unforgiving staple. Phew. That was a close one. We soon finished the Operation and walked away new women. Women who can pretty much host their own show on HGTV now.

Here are a few pictures of our grand adventure:

The first is Hannah taking off the fabric from the cushions and cutting out the new fabric.

Then is my handy work of taking out all the old staples with an old pair of scissors.

Then stapling each sid of the batting to hold in the cushion.

Finally...the finished product!! The old chair with the new and improved chair!