I tried desperately to make some headway on my Artmetal aluminum desk chair today. I pulled out the vinyl that I am using, found some batting, my can of contact adhesive and the scissors. Still, I got pretty much nowhere. At least you (and I) can see what the vinyl color and pattern will look like on the chair, if only on the seat.
Obviously, even the seat isn't done yet. I made the mistake of second guessing myself after
gluing down some batting onto the blue foam padding. I started to place a piece of vinyl over
the seat and thought "how is the vinyl going to adhere to the shapes and curves of the sculpted
seat without being glue directly to the the blue padding?"
Those are some pretty complex concave curves that the vinyl will have to follow. The vinyl
must be glued down. Period. So, I thought "it won't glue down to batting, might as well pull
that all back off". Done. Then I sprayed the padding down again with adhesive as well as
the vinyl. After waiting a while to let that set up I gingerly "placed" the vinyl on the padding
and...well, sat in it to be sure it conformed to the seating surface.
Oops, that's when I realized why I needed the batting in the first place. It will fill in the
imperfections of the padding edges and make the seat look filled around the edges. Hmmmm...
so I can't use it....but have to have it. ::sigh:: So I think I'll just double or triple up the batting
and place it just around the edge of the seat...you know, since the top is kinda already glued
down pretty well.
But at least you can see the pattern and color of the vinyl and how it looks on the sculpted
seating surface. I think the curvy scribbley cross hatching in shades of grey looks great on the
chair. And I did get a piece of the blue padding cut, fitted and glued down for the back rest.
THAT will definitely get propper batting and be an easy fit for the vinyl. These projects never
go as easily they seem like they will. But I am learning as I go and it's good to learn something
new.
I give you a lot of credit for even attempting it!!!!
ReplyDeleteIs this a Goodform chair? I have three with original upholstered seat and back and all are in need of being redone. I picked them up for around $10 total thinking it would be a steal until I had one priced to reupholster. Took the back and seat in for pricing and 1 came in at about $150 because they are so labor intense. Not sure I could tackle them on my own. Good luck with yours. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.
ReplyDeleteJust my limited two cents... Although vinyl was the original material, it's not easy to work with and I may have picked a fabric to replace this with. That said, the vinyl might still work without the batting if it's cut a bit larger than the seat so that it pulls over the edges. I've never tried this, but when I do, I'll likely try using a heat gun on the vinyl to try and make more plyable for turning the corners and eliminating the creases. I suspect the factories had some type of heated form when putting these together. ???
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