Saturday, December 18, 2010

Little Bit Of A Before And After. My Recovered Brasilia Dining Chairs. Status: Two-Thirds done.

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Between the 17 or so Brasilia dining chairs I've had in the last year or so I have been blessed with a full set of six that had the original upholstery in good condition, but I'm not a fan of the "birds" so I traded them to a buddy along with a pedestal table for my long "legged" table that he had already freshened up.


That left me with a lot of recovering to do since all the rest were pretty ugly.

Luckily I've been finding pretty cool upholstery material at our local Garden Ridge

and Old Time Pottery. I stop by these two places about once a month to see if

they have any new material to snatch up. They sell it in small pieces usually about

3-4 yards each for about $4 a yard. Perfect for recovering chair seats, making

pillows and other small projects.


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I've gotten Four done and still have Two more to go. I have enough material to

recover maybe two extra chairs seats should I ever decide to get another pair. I've

spent about two hours on each chair, but I'm REALLY picky about doing a good

job. I don't like seeing all the pleats around the corners so I take my time and will

disassemble the upholstery and try again if I'm not satisfied. I don't do more than

one at a time so I don't get too tired / frustrated with the job.

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I bought some new batting and doubled it up over the original "padding". The foam

batting on some of these was just orange dust. I guess it was biodegradable!

Buying a GOOD stapler is a must too. If you buy cheap (new) you get cheap. If

you don't want to pay full retail for a Craftsman, you might find a good quality

vintage(ish) one at an estate sale or a flea market. If you are even going to do

ONE set of chairs, it's still worth getting a good stapler. You'll find a good use for it

again sooner or later.

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5 comments:

  1. Nice! I like the new fabric. I agree the birds are meh, but they are better than the stipes.
    Why do people do that?

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  2. Love the fabric! I am obsessed w/ Brasilia and have 12 chairs- one set had thicker cushions that were welted, so I had them all professionally reupholstered w/ the welted edge- they are super comfy. Bought some new fabric for a song off newtoto.com.

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  3. mono - Those stripes, besides being pretty nastily dirty, are so fifteen years ago. The panache of original fabric is pretty hard to resist and luckily my buddy was able to talk me out of the set pretty quickly.

    Carolyn - I've seen the "thick" padded chairs here and there on the web. I'd love to see yours. Any chance you could provide us with a link to pics of your chairs and other pieces? We're all big fans of Broyhill Brasilia around here!

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  4. Ah Brasilia - so gorgeous! I love the new upholstery!

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  5. Rhan - Thanks, I know you love the Brasilia!

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