Happy Thursday, Friends! I’m going to try and make this tutorial brief today, if that’s even possible. We have had so much busyness going on around our home with Wesley’s Senior activities, last High School play, and other various life activities! Fun stuff, but so many activities crammed in a very short time period! Remember Part 1 & Part 2 of our Master bedroom projects? Today is the final part, Part 3, a tutorial on reupholstering a French armchair.

Reupholstery Part

Supplies needed for this project:

• Paint
• Dropcloth fabric to make pattern 
• Fabric ( upholstery weight for recovering furniture piece )
• Good sewing scissors
• Staple gun & longer staples for securing fabric
• Hot glue gun
• Trim/nailhead,gimp,rope, etc.

I really didn’t take great pictures for this tutorial, so I had to go back through my photos and sort of try and make them work for this post! I saw this French armchair one day while driving home at a yard sale. I was so excited because I had wanted one for our Master bedroom for quite some time. Here is what the fabric and wood looked like when I found it ( give or take green Frogtape! )

Brown floral fabric with a walnut tone wood frame. I saw great potential in the lines of this pretty chair!

 I thought I wanted an off-white sort of distressed look, but it turns out I really didn’t! 

 The color just did not work in the space at all. ARGGHHHH. It was alot of work, but I’ve found it’s better to re-do it right then instead of waiting. Sort of like when I used dropcloth to cover this chair after I first got it, and left it for over  2 years without as much as a thought of doing it better. ( OK, I’ll admit…I DID have thoughts, it just never seemed to make it to #1 on the priority list)

 Please excuse the terrible picture quality! I forgot to take a good “before,” but this gives you a general idea of what I did after the brown floral!

 When I first recovered this chair, I pretty much used materials I had on hand….ahem, can you tell? I wanted to try it and see how difficult it would be. I first made a pattern by laying the dropcloth on top of the chair and cutting it to approximate size.

 In the above picture, the top circle image is the back pattern for the chair and the oval is the front chair back pattern. The next large piece is the seat cover pattern. Dropcloth is a great fabric to use as a pattern because it’s inexpensive and easy to work with! So, total number of pattern pieces for this French armchair was 3: front back piece, back piece, and seat cover.

Lay the seat cover piece over the seat, draping the side notched areas over the arm base. It’s fine if it’s too long- you can trim it later after checking all the way around for good coverage!

Here is what you DON’T  want to do! You know that old rule, “measure twice, cut once?!” Yes, it has become my sewing mantra because it’s SO frustrating to undercut a piece of fabric! That’s another reason why using an inexpensive fabric like dropcloth is a good idea. I realized next time I would allow ample fabric and trim it later.

 On this side, I did a little better. Leaving extra fabric that can be trimmed later is the best approach when reupholstering, I’ve found. Trim can hide imperfections in an amazing way after the stapling part!

It’s really pretty easy from here on. Tuck the raw edges and staple as you go; I started at one back side and worked my way around, pulling and smoothing the fabric as I went. This picture is not accurate, but you will have MANY staples around the piece. You want this so that the fabric doesn’t pucker and gather. I had to remove staples at one point with the green leopard fabric to adjust the pattern and make sure it was straight and centered. If you have a repeat on your fabric, be sure to center that before cutting much! Very important!

Here’s a general idea of the finished seat cover.( I had front pleats with the dropcloth, but not when I used the green leopard fabric) Next, do the same with the back oval fabric piece, smoothing and pulling to adjust the fabric. Again, MANY staples! Finally, do the same to the back fabric piece. Now, it’s time for the trim! Here is where I don’t have alot of pictures, but I’m basically going to tell you the mistake I made, so you don’t have to suffer! lol 🙂

When figuring out how much trim you need, measure around the seat and both back pieces and add those numbers together, then divide by 36 ( allow about a half a yard extra for mistakes and make sure you measure at all widest points ) I started with the seat on the back front left side, and hot glued as I went. It’s easier to lay the chair on its side while doing this, I found ( so you can see better and so that it lays flat ) Here’s where it went wrong: I should have started at the back, going over the back frame and around so it would be one continuous piece of trim and then gone around the whole seat and not cut the trim until I got to the back on the other side before I cut it- it will have to end at some point, but the back is definitely less conspicuous! Instead, I started at the back front side and forgot to guide the trim over and around the back seat frame base. I cut the trim too soon, then had to go buy another amount of yardage for the whole seat. Thank God it was on sale, but still! I was so frustrated and angry with myself 🙁 Another live and learn moment in DIY….

So back to the white paint color. It just was NOT working in this space, so I racked my brain for what color might work best in our Master, and came up with gold ( I thought that would make the chair more interesting with my fabric selection for the French armchair! And the coral & gold dresser and chair would coordinate in the space.) 

 I found these fabrics at The Woodstock Market in Bob’s Upholstery & Decorating booth while at one of our Atlanta Area Bloggers meetings. I tell ya, the coral & gold dresser paved the way for my fabric choices! I decided to reupholster the chair in the lime green leopard fabric.

I searched many places before finding this coral & green trim at a local fabric & design shop. I thought it would add that nice finishing touch to the chair!

Painting Part

 Tip: Use Frogtape to tape off the frame areas next to the fabric before painting and recovering ( obviously!)~it will go so much faster!

The gold paints I used were Martha Stewart Living Metallic Paint in Vintage Gold ( sold at Home Depot ), FolkArt Acrylic craft paint in Metallic Antique Gold, & Rub n’ Buff in Antique Gold. Here’s where I went wrong on the paint: It hasn’t been a huge problem, but I thought I would save you the trouble on this part, too! When I painted the chair the first time, I used flat latex paint followed by clear paste finishing wax, and then dark wax. When I painted it gold with the Martha Stewart gold paint, I should have sanded or removed the wax with a little paint thinner or denatured alcohol first. It would have given it a better surface for the gold to adhere to, and truthfully would not have been too much work. I first painted with Martha Stewart Vintage Gold, followed by FolkArt Metallic Antique Gold, and then rubbed the Rub ‘n Buff over the entire wood surface. There are areas where the paint is slightly peeling, which drives me a little crazy, but I will touch it up with more Rub n’ Buff. If I had properly prepared the surface, this would not have happened!

Yeah, it was sort of time consuming and I made some mistakes, but overall I am very happy with my French armchair makeover. I think it really adds a nice touch of individuality, glamour, & color to this formerly neutral Master bedroom. And now I feel more confident about recovering chairs in the future. One thing I would LOVE to learn is how to make slipcovers! I have bought e-books and tried, but so far it’s beyond my basic sewing level! lol 🙂 

If you have any questions about this tutorial, please email me or leave a comment! I’m happy to answer. Til next time, y’all~

Toodles! xo