Project for the day: Recover the chair

Do you have any items in your house that you know you would feel absolutely awful if they were damaged? I do, and most of them are heirlooms (that probably are more sentimental than valuable, but still priceless). One such item is the chair cover for the chair I use at my desk.

The chair is an older style with a pink upholstery cushion which is the perfect height to fit at my desk at which I work (and is definitely a step up from sitting on the ottoman or an exercise ball (which were both, just a hair too short for typing comfort). The cushion was hand-embroidered by my mother-in-law’s grandma (so my daughter’s great, great grandmother) and is lovely.

I was rather nervous about accepting the chair when it was offered because I was going to be sitting on it every single day (instead of very rarely as it was accustom to prior to entering my home) and any sort of constant use is going to create wear and tear on an item, but my mother-in-law was insistent I take it, so it came here. The point where I decided I had to save the covering was when I began toilet-training my daughter. She has been in the process of training for a little over a week and has had about one accident per day on each of my other chairs (which are scotch-guarded and so more of an inconvenience than a problem). I wanted to be sure I could save the covering for when this chair isn't getting so much use and also so my daughter would be able to see the lovely work her great, great grandmother did. 

So the first thing I did was remove the cushion to determine if it was possible to remove the covering in one piece. It had the protective black fabric found under most chairs, so I had to carefully remove the staples to that so I could see that the cover was also stapled, but otherwise it came off very easily. Once I had removed it I was able to add to the batting under it (which mostly was in really good shape) and cut out new fabric (from a scrap of fabric I had left over from a pillow I made a few years ago) that was big enough to cover the area from the former cover.

Then I went out stretching and stapling the fabric over the batting and smoothing it out so it would fit on the chair. (turned out pretty good). I then scotch guarded it so I could clean up any accidents easily and maintain the batting looking good prior to putting it back on the chair (since you don't want scotch guard to get on the woodwork). So after waiting for it to dry (and only falling through the lack of seat once when I went to sit down- oops) I reassembled it. 

Here is the finished chair. Because the fabric matches pillows in the room, it looks a bit more cohesive having my desk in there and I have the piece of mind that if I use it every day I won't ruin a treasured family heirloom in the process. Double win!