The Alabama Chair

You all cheered with me when I found this cute chair a couple weeks ago yardsaling for $15. Didn’t really know where I’d put it, since I don’t have spare room around my house. But, I couldn’t resist and brought it home anyway.

And this recent conversation with my hubby prompted a FUN chair makeover, when he told me that the old dining room chair I had in his office had been cracked across the back by the big lugs who sometimes come to visit him and sit in his office. Those guys sat in the guest chair and cracked the back of it, so a sturdier chair was needed for the hub’s office.

So, since a makeover was needed, I decided to have some fun with it….

And, the Alabama chair was born!  Ta-da! How do you like this one?  Doesn’t it make you giggle out loud?

Someone sent me this Alabama fabric last year as a freebie (and if you are reading, I don’t remember who you were and so sorry, but I lost your email & didn’t hear back).  I had this yard of fabric and figured it would look pretty snazzy to fix up this chair and make it Crimson Tide worthy for hubby’s office.  I did purchase the houndstooth fabric at Hobby Lobby (only needed 1/2 yard, so it was $5.00 on sale).  I found several online sites with the same fabric, along with many other colleges and one of them is here.

I love how it turned out, so I’ll show you all how I did to it to turn it into an enviable Alabama Crimson Tide wonder-chair.  You Auburn fans will just have to shield your eyes at this point.

Started by taking off the seat and began ripping off the layer of fabric that covered the original fabric. I didn’t want too many layers on there.

I had never taken apart one of these chairs and you would think that this back piece, which has fabric on the front and back sides, would all be one piece, right?  Not so! These are 2 pieces of wood that are placed in here and covered.  I pried off the frontside and it had nails protruding out of it.

Like this. 

I then tried to get that back piece off and could not figure out how it was attached, so as usual got my hammer out and began banging away on that piece of wood, trying to dislodge it.  Then, I figured out it has screws in it that were holding it in place.  Turned the chair upside down to see these 2 small screw holes.  So, just a warning, if you have a chair like this, look for all the small  openings that might hold screws in place.  I didn’t ruin it, but did splinter those screw holes just a bit. Not enough to mess it up though.

So, we’re ready for the fun part.  Painting and recovering. 

I used that famous Heirloom White on the chair frame and gave it a good 2 coats for coverage.  I did wipe it down with my liquid sander first, just to degloss a bit.

All painted and waiting for her cushions.

The original seat cushion was in really bad shape, so no wonder the previous owners recovered it.

Get out the staple gun and get busy.  I pull taut on one side and staple in place, then go to the opposite side and staple.  Do the same things on the other 2 sides, that way all your fabric will be pulled equally taut all the way around the chair seat.

Keep stapling, pulling the corners in nice and tight and fold down as needed and it will look like this.  I went back with  my scissors and trimmed off the excess fabric outside my staple lines.

I put the back side of the 2 pieces in first (the back piece had a dowel that fit up into the chair & then 2 screws in the bottom part).  Then the front side with the nails protruding went in place last.  This is the only part I had trouble with.  Once you take out the board with nails (the front side of the back rest), it’s not so easy to get them to stick back in place again.  They tend to want to push back into the foam underneath.   I finally got it  in place with a rubber mallet and I added a bit of wood glue, hoping it would stick to the other side.  If it comes out again, I may have to get some thick double sided tape to help it stay in place.  So far so good.

And there she is!  A cute chair now.   Not at all what I had planned for this chair, but I think she is cute as a button.  And later on, if we move things around, I can reinvent her once again. 

For now, she’ll keep my hubby company in his office and be a suitable and sturdy guest chair for those guys dropping by.

Houndstooth was the perfect mix for the other Crimson Tide fabric.

Ador-able!

How do you like the Alabama Chair??

Added to Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest.

Added to Traci’s Best Projects of April party.

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