Chair Re-upholstery

This is a project that I have wanted to do for a very long time. I actually finished it several weeks ago, but it was such a huge project with so many pictures that it took me a while to get it all organized in order to blog about it. 

When my husband and I got married, we got two chairs from my family. These chairs were bought new by my grandma, so they have been in my family for some time. And they are rather old.

This is the chair before. It was a light blue velvety fabric and very worn. I have actually tried several times to get rid of the chairs because I just didn't like the look of them, but my husband loves how comfortable they are, so he won and we've kept them. 

When I was deciding on the nursery colors and furniture I realized that one of these chairs would be perfect for in there and decided to do my first re-upholstery project. 

We went to Joann Fabrics and picked out the fabric for the chair. Originally, I wanted a navy blue to go with the nursery, but we couldn't find any fabric we liked in that color, so we went with a gray instead. It would be a great neutral color, just in case we wanted to change it to a different room someday. 

The first thing to do was take pictures from every angle of the chair, especially the little details. This is important so that they can be referenced later. Here are a few of those pictures. 

Next, the original fabric had to come off. This was probably my least favorite part. It took much longer than I thought it was going to!! I used a flat head screw driver and pliers and lots of help from my wonderful husband. I also took pictures as each piece came off. I was careful enough taking things apart that all of the tack strip and foam was able to be reused. 

First to come off was the skirt, then the back:

Next, the sides and piping. This piping went up one side, around the back, and down the other side. 

The front of the arms then came off. I took a lot of pictures of this because of the way the piping laid. 

I then took the front pillow off. When this piece came off, I realized this project was going to be much more work than I expected. It was several pieces all sewn together and came off in one chunk. This piece was taken completely apart and the individual pieces were used as a pattern for the new piece. 

The last pieces to come off were the arms and front. 

This left me with a chair that was completely naked. 

As I said above, all the foam, stuffing, tack strips, and cardboard were in good enough condition to be reused. I vacuumed all parts of the chair and pieces of foam, then fabreezed it all to get it nice and fresh. 

The pieces taken off were used as pattern pieces for the new fabric. With the new pieces, I worked backwards from how I took everything off to put the chair back together. 

1. Front

2. Arms

3. Front cushion - cover buttons were used for the new buttons

4. Sides

5. Back

6. Skirt

7. Seat Cushion 

This was my first re-upholstery project as well as my first time using cover buttons and first time making piping. I love love love how this chair turned out and expect it to be used for a very long time. 

We also decided that we love this chair so much it will be going in the living room rather than the nursery!

The last thing I learned from this project was to never again try re-upholstery 8 months pregnant. It was not only difficult working around my belly, but my emotions. Even so, I'm very happy with the chair and love showing it off when people come to visit!

~K.A.N.

Mattoon Family

Let me introduce you to some of our very best friends: The Mattoons. Courtney and I hit it off with our mutual love for crafting. The best part about it is that our husbands don't mind hanging out either. :) 

Courtney has wanted to get some family pictures taken in the wheat fields, so I told her I would do some. Luckily, our baby decided he wouldn't come just yet, so the wheat had time to change and I was able to take their pictures last night. The sky was so clear and even at 7:15 pm it was still pretty bright, but we did our best and got some good shots of this adorable family. 

This is my handsome hubby who so graciously came to help. He agreed that it was a bit bright out. 

The family of 3: 

The men of the house:

Mom and Mason:

We also had help from our other great friend Nikki. She did awesome helping with the dogs and Mason, so a big thanks to her! Here is a shot of the whole family:

~K.A.N.

Mason

This morning I took some pictures for my friend whose little guy is now 18 months. It was lots of fun, but boy does he have his own idea about pictures...he was done when he was done. 

Even still we were able to get some really stinkin' cute pictures, and I wanted to share a few of my favorites. 

And although it wasn't easy, we were able to get a picture with mom. 

I'm going to miss these guys like crazy when we move! Thanks for letting me capture some sweet little moments with you today!

~K.A.N.

Independence Day

This year for the 4th, I decided that I wanted to fill our day with all kinds of awesome activities. We had a whole day planned, which about 75% worked out. 

We first went to a breakfast held by our church. We invited our friends to come and had fun with them, as well as with other friends and family. There was food, pony rides, and even a bounce castle. 

On our way home, I got a bit sick, so we had to cancel our trip to the river. I was a bit bummed out, but we were still able to hang out with friends and do a barbecue lunch at their house. We relaxed and talked and watched some tv. 

Around 4 we came back home and took a nap because we knew we were going to be up later to watch some fireworks. We woke up, waited just a bit, then drove out to a small town with a big firework show. We had so much fun watching the fireworks and hanging out with even more friends. 

~K.A.N.

Lamp

For the baby's nursery, I decided that rather than pick a theme, I wanted to just pick colors. I picked navy blue and white for the main colors with green as an accent. We are still in a one-bedroom, but I can finally see everything coming together. 

One of the things I wanted was a little side table with a lamp. My mother-in-law gave me a lamp that was the perfect size, so all I had to do was make it match the nursery!

On the left is the stand all taped up and ready to paint. It started as a dark green, so I decided the easiest way to go was navy blue. The lamp shade is on the right; just a plain off-white color. 

For the shade, I laid out my fabric and used the actual shade as a "pattern" by rolling the shade on the fabric and tracing where the edges were. I added about an inch to the top and bottom as well as to the sides, which gave me this shape: 

I then used hot glue to put the fabric on the original shade. I tucked in the ends to give it a nice finished look. The stand was all dry by this point, so I took the tape off, added the newly re-covered lamp shade and now I have a lamp that matches the nursery perfectly!

~K.A.N.