A Big Move

Bad news? 
I won't be able to finish my wingback for another month.

Good news?
My husband was offered an amazing job in Connecticut. Yes! We're moving back to the New England area in 10 days. The funny thing is, I lived in the West Hartford for a year straight out of college and HATED it. It just wasn't a great place for a 22 year old to "find" herself. Thankfully, we'll be living in a smaller town closer to Rhode Island and it's a great area for families. Hopefully we'll be buying our first home soon. So exciting! So many DIY house projects to come!

Sorry to disappoint you all with yet another unfinished project. But look at it this way, I'll be able to finish both the wingback and my Maine chair from September. Yippee!

Love the Beasts,
Emily

Wingback Progress

I'm halfway done with recovering the wingback!!! Yippee!!! I went a different route with the details on the arms, instead of using piping I chose to use upholstery tacks. Crossing my fingers it all works out and it'll be done by the end of the week. I hope I hope I hope!

Here are a few sneak peeks of my progress.

And yes I'm using canvas dropcloth again, but the back and cushion of the wingback will feature a different fabric. No sneak peek on that though. It's a surpriiiiiise!

Love the Beasts,
Emily

De-upholstered Wingback

Ugh! Almost 2 weeks later and I've finally removed all of the purple fabric from my wingback. I would say that I removed all the staples too, but this monster has been reupholstered before and there old staples in the wood that I'm not messing with.

Here's my curbside wingback before.

Here's what she looks like right now. It's so awesome how it feels like I haven't done anything. But hopefully that changes over the next few weeks. At least I think that's how long it will take to dress her up again. I have a plan on her "after" look, I just hope I'm successful!

A beautiful sight for those that understand. And here's her original fabric. Hello 70's! Not terrible, but not my style either.

Love the Beasts,

Emily

What have I been doing?

This...

I can't even explain what a pain in the arse it is to take the upholstery off of a wingback. I'm trying to salvage the ply-grip (metal teeth) and reuse it when I finally get to upholstering this monster, but it's getting pretty beat up by all my pulling and prying. Staple count is probably up to around 300+ now. Injury count is 2, and I'm only counting the injuries where I bled my own blood.

To sum it up, I've worked about 1 or 2 hours everyday and have only stripped the back and left side of the chair. I still have a bajillion staples waiting for me to pull out before I can even think about reupholstering my wingback. Sigh, well back to work. Lets hope it takes less than a week to get rest of the purpleness off.

Love the Beasts,
Emily

The Wingback

I'm back in Houston and unfortunately I didn't finish the chair I bought up in Maine. It's painted a bright grassy green and the seat is upholstered with a great funky fabric, but the seat back still needs to be recovered. Sad, I know. It's blasphemy to leave a lovely chair like that half done! But don't worry, I'll get back to it eventually. I promise!

So what's the next big project you ask? The Wingback. This big purple monster I grabbed off the curb for free.

This is quite the reupholstery project I'm taking on. It requires a lot of tools and techniques that are completely foreign to me. But that's what this whole blog is about! Learning the trade and turning hideous beasts into gorgeous beauts. Or just pretty decent looking dames.

Here I go! Wish me luck!

Love the Beasts,
Emily

Curbside Save of the Week: Wingback Chair

My husband let me do a little yard/estate sale shopping on Saturday while Annie was napping and although I didn't find anything at the sales, I did get this wingback chair off the curb for absolutely NOTHING! It was a freebie! Hurrah!

I've seen several wingbacks in similar condition at thrift stores for prices ranging from $25-125 , but I was never willing to spend the money for both the chair and the upholstery work. Plus, most of the wingbacks weren't vintage. They were usually only about 5-10 years old. I almost picked one up off the side of the road for free a few months ago but when it was halfway into the car, I quickly took it back out because of all the fire ants crawling over it. I also realized that replacing the missing cushions would put me over budget on the redo.

So when I saw this purple one in decent condition, smoke-free, pet-smell-free, and cushion intact I figured I had nothing to lose! I mean it was free! And although it wasn't vintage I didn't mind because again, I didn't spend a penny on it. It will likely take me a few months to reupholster the chair, but I'm in no rush. If I want it to be close to perfect, I'll have to take long extended breaks in between each upholstery stage so I don't get sloppy or sick of it.

And as an update on the rolling cabinet, I'm done painting and will be glazing it soon but have decided it needs more character. So there will be some modpodging work on the top. I hope that'll give it the kick it needs to look like an "Emily" redo! Here's a progress pic on the paint. I added a coat of Sherwin Williams Grey Screen paint but it no longer looks like dry brushed, it now just looks grey. Oh well! I still like it!