Postal Chair – before & after

The Before & After!

Have a look here if you want to see the stripping apart.
And have a look here if you want to see how we built it up again.

Postal Chair–part 2

Sunday afternoon, time to get busy with the Postal Chair, we started on last weekend. You might be wondering we we’ve called it a ‘postal chair’. Ever since a Dutch fashion designer made jackets from old postal bags I’ve been fantasising about using them too. And a project like this is perfect for it! Before we started cutting and stapling, we filled some of the holes in the wood and gave it a good bees waxing.

In Utrecht we bought the fabric (8€ a meter), and new reupholstering nails and strips. Friday I bought new foam in Brussels (2.5 cm thick). So we’re ready to go!

We cut the fabric using the old fabric as a template (just to be sure we added a couple of centimetres on either side). The first part we stapled down was the back side of the back of the chair (makes sense right?).

Tom then stapled a piece of cardboard (or singleplex?) over it. If you look closely you can see the fabric of the back of the back sticking out underneath. We used spray glue to stick a layer of foam to the back and the seat. Over that we placed the fabric, pulled it tight, and stapled it down.

Because of the thickness of the foam we had some trouble pressing it down, folding the edges and pulling it tight. Luckily we found a method that worked for us. We would fold the fabric and pin it in position, then I would push down the foam with a strong metal strip, and Tom would have little trouble stapling it down in a straight line. Over the staples we hammered the nail strips.

In our next post we’ll show the Before & After!

Saturday back home & more measuring tape chairs!

It has been ages since I’ve been back in The Netherlands, except for my trip to Tajikistan (flew through Amsterdam) I haven’t been home for more than a year I think. So when my best friend invited us for a living room folk ball we just had to go!
We got up at six just to make it in time to Utrecht. We had some great fun, some good drinks (see below.. that’s me!), and pizza from Mario’s!

In the early morning we went to the lapjesmarkt in Utrecht to get 11 m of fabric for the inner tent we have to make for our folding tent (this one). We succeeded to find a bright orange stripe for just 1 euro a meter (yaay). And we even found a nice fabric for our new chair project (keeping that one a secret for now).
The afternoon we spent at my friends place. She had four old chairs that resembled the one we re-did with those Ikea measuring tapes (link), and wanted to redo them just like we did. So we spent a couple of hours cutting measuring tapes and stapling them to her chairs. Note that Ginny’s (check her out here) chairs do have a grid pattern!

Postal Chair–part 1

After buying what Tom calls an ‘atrocious chair’, we decided to give it a new look (to make it a little less atrocious in Tom’s eyes. This is the first time we’re trying a chair with nails, so don’t judge if we fail miserably.
We got the nails out with a screwdriver and a pair of pliers, but we didn’t manage to salvage a single nail! We’ll have to find a way to get them out a little more carefully. Anyway, we got the nails out, and the staples that were beneath the nails. We ended up with a pretty clean chair. Along the way it became clear that the chair had been reupholstered before, we think the original was a reed chair. You can see the reed holes in the last picture.
Now it’s off to the Lapjesmarkt in Utrecht to get some supplies!

Measuring Tape Chair - part two

Amat still isn't very amused, but we love the end result!

Some time ago when I was at the Ikea buying fabric for some project I don't even remember, I also bought one of their measuring tapes. They were more rubbery than the ones my mum uses, and they got me thinking... They would make a great chair seat!! So, since then we've been on the look out for a chair to try it out. A couple of months ago we found one, and started sanding it down (see the post here).

After the sand down this chair got ages ago (it has been standing in our living room ever since), we painted it thrice (with a small sanding after two coats). The chair itself was looking great, now we had to start cracking on the seat.

We measured and cut the measuring tape and decided for an order to put them in (above). Next I pulled and Tom stapled them to the back of the seat (below).

Once we had done the horizontals (or the verticals) and Tom had nailed them down a little harder. We were on to the verticals (or horizontals). To be honest I was planning for a checker pattern, but because we were not thinking properly when we started stapling everything down we ended up with something else. So, if you want a checker pattern make all the horizontals one color, and all the verticals a different color. Lesson learned for next time.

When you are doing the horizontals make sure that you push them tightly to the next strip. The tighter the stronger your seat will be.

The inch-bottom.

Make sure that when you staple anything down it is (a) in place, (b) tight, (c) really stapled down! In the end trim off the edges and give those sticking out staples another whack with the hammer and you're more or less finished. 

Just to sum it all up, we used:

- 1 chair

- Sanding paper

- White primer (1 coat)

- White paint (2 coats)

- A tiny paint roller

- 8 meters of measuring tape (4 grey, 4 yellow - from Ikea)

- our sturdy little staplegun

- and the best and most enabling boyfriend ever!

Before     &       After

Q: How large is your butt? Measure it with a measuring-chair!

Measuring Tape Chair - part one

When we were buying this very cute teapot, we happened to see (and buy) this old little chair. We had been looking for one with a removable seat for an Ikea hack we thought up. So after sanding it down (a very manly job) and removing the seat, this is what we ended up with:

Now just wait until you see the end result!!

You can find the end of this saga here.

Reupholster Project - Part 7

This afternoon I finished the cushion of the chair. I made it in such a way that the cover can be removed and washed if necessary. I hope we can more or less put together the chair this evening when Tom is back from work. 

Reupholster Project - Part 1 (the before)

Reupholster Project - Part 2 (the staples)

Reupholster Project - Part 3 (the staples)

Reupholster Project - Part 4 (the back)

Reupholster Project - Part 5 (the wings)

Reupholster Project - Part 6 (the arms)

Reupholster Project - Part 6

This evening we finished the two armrests of our wing chair. Things are really starting to look great!!!

Reupholster Project - Part 1 (the before)

Reupholster Project - Part 2 (the staples)

Reupholster Project - Part 3 (the staples)

Reupholster Project - Part 4 (the back)

Reupholster Project - Part 5 (the wings)

Reupholster Project - Part 5

Last night we finished the wings of the chair - this morning our cat approves :-). To make the wings fit exactly I used the same method I used when reupholstering the couch.

Reupholster Project - Part 1

Reupholster Project - Part 2

Reupholster Project - Part 3

Reupholster Project - Part 4

Reupholster Project - Part 4

So we went to Ikea (on a Saturday afternoon - never ever ever again) and we came home with this navy (or Obelix's pants) fabric. We started off with the back of the chair and it's looking good!

Reupholster Project - Part 1

Reupholster Project - Part 2

Reupholster Project - Part 3

Reupholster Project - Part 3

This evening we finished pulling all the staples out and getting the fabric off. We made sure to make pictures of every little step we made and of things that may come in handy when putting it back together again. Furthermore we labeled every piece so we know what is what. I'm sorry to say that we don't have any pictures of the 'naked' chair, we simply forgot to make them.

Tom did the calculations, and we need approximately six meters of fabric (with the standard Ikea width of 1.50 m). I wonder what we will get at Ikea. 

Reupholster Project - Part 1

Reupholster Project - Part 2

Reupholster Project - Part 2

We've started undoing ALL the staples, and when you think there is not a staple left, there is always one more to go! This evening we got the bottom off, and most of the staples from the other bottom parts.

Reupholster Project - Part 1

Reupholster Project?

Last week I was at the local second hand shop when I happened upon this very very ugly wing chair. Seeing an opportunity I instantly bought it for the tiny sum of 10 euro. So now it is standing in our very messy living room waiting for inspiration and time.

In the meantime Tom is using it as his designated knitting chair.