Saturday, April 20, 2013

Upholster a chair


Helllo Guys... I had a wonderful week ... I just finished accomplishing something that I have been wanting to do for a long time. Yes... I re-upholstered all of my dining chairs !!! I am sooo glad with the outcome.


 The before and after pics makes me happy every time I look at it :)



Ohh... loook at them... I just love they way they turned out !


 Perfect for my cute little table


Upholstering might seem a daunting task at first. But trust me...its one of the simplest project I have done... of course excluding the hunt for the perfect fabric and good foam for the cushion :) Thanks to my husband... He was so supportive. We kind of roamed around so many places in hunt of good fabric and foam.
But really reupholstering dining chairs are so simple. Read through the tutorial below and you'll see how easy it is... So dont think of giving away those old chairs you have.... do some magic on them and they are as good as new.
So lets get started !
First gather your supplies !


1) First you need a chair that desperately needs a makeover :)
2) Upholstery fabric
3) Cushion Foam - there are different densities of foam available. Choose foam that has higher density coz u'll be using your chairs very often right. I brought a 40 density foam sheet from sleepwell. It has a 10 yr warranty and stuff . It was a little pricey though. You don't have to invest on a full sheet if u intend to do only cushions for your chairs. You can also get it custom cut according to you requirements and costs much less.
4) Staple Gun - Oh this piece of item is magical. Using it is so nice. The guys will particularly like this. My husband was so excited to use this. I got mine from Staples.
5) Glue &
6) Scissors 

Once you have all you supplies in place, The first step would be to rip out you old chairs cusion from the seat. Some seats might be screwed to the chair. So remove it carefully and then cut out the fabric and remove the old cushion.

So now that you have the base, Lets cut the foam.
There is very effective trick on cutting foam or themocol in perfect shapes.

The Trick !!
To Perfectly cut your foam, simply heat the kitchen Knife and make the cut. Move the hot knife slowly and cut. Heat as soon as the knife cools down.




Next apply glue on the plywood or wood on which the old cushion was there.


Place the cut foam on it. Align properly. Leave it for and hour to dry (I skipped this step though !! was too excited to get started heheee...)



Next bring out you fabric. Place your cushion on top of it. Leave some fabric around it. So that you cna wrap the fabric onto the plywood and staple.


Next place the foam right in the center of the fabric. Pull each side towards the plywood. Apply stape right on the center for all the 4 sides. Remember to pull you fabric real tight. This is to avoid bunching of fabric.




Pull the fabric tightly



Staple the center of each side



Now start stapling from the center towards the sides. Don't staple all the way to the corners. Leave some space at the corners.

Once done. Cut out some excess fabric at the corners.

Fold the corners. Hold Tight . Staple !



 Done !!


Place the cushion on the chair. and screw in place ...

That's it. I told u it is simple ! :)

For the next few days appreciate yourself for the good work ! :)






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Sunday, April 14, 2013

A Painting Day

paint.jpg
Yes... I had a painting day after a longg longg time... It seems like ages before that I have drawn something. 
All credit to my husband... He brought me a canvas book. I actually never knew such a thing exists until I came across one in Staples. Its is a book  with canvas sheets. It has about 10 canvas sheets and is much cheaper compared to the framed canvases that you get.
The amazing part is that now I can draw as my heart desires. Generally whenever I buy a new canvas...I'll always be in a dilemma  What to draw? How to draw - All back, color, knife painting ?... Will it turn out good???.... Good lord  !!!... I just spilled black paint on the  drawing...Its ruined !!
So most of the times by the time I am done with the painting..I'll be exhausted...
But not this time... I whipped up the drawing in like less than 45 min.. I was just standing there splashing colors here and there....:) It felt good. 
Have you seen my other paintings???
Not yet... ???
Do check out my painting section ...and drop in your suggestions and comments...
Here's the link :http://nichuspace.blogspot.in/p/paintings.html
That's the very serious me...
easy painting

Richu  is pointing some flaws I guess... ha haa...there were many !!
Yeah... its not very nice... But yet I enjoyed...thats important rit :)
Its resting place for the net few days... then it goes into some drawer again :)
I have a small art gallery space in my dining room... collection of some random drawings
With a Richu in it :)

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Saturday, March 9, 2013

Back Pillow from a Tshirt

My Husband got a gift coupon the other day. So we went to the shopping mall near  our house. He told me to spend it ...so I decide to get myself a top or something. We reached the shop...went through the entire clothing section... but i simply didnt like any of the tops or dresses they had on display... Then I though it was time to show some husband Love... :) and decided to pick something for my hubby... That too didn't work out...
 Now I was desperate to spend money and started picking up all sorts of things which probably were of no particular use... :)
In the home decor section I came across some nice cushion... one with ties... It struck a bell in my head... yeah this could be perfect for the dining table chair... But we looked at the price it was too pricey .. That's when he said...  You can make that urself cant you... then why buy... So like Barney says in "How I Met Your Mother" ... I said 'Challenge Accepted !!' ha haaa...
So we finally ended up buying nothing and headed back home... Isn't it amazing how when we really have to buy something... we never like anything. This is not the first time this has happened to me... What about you?? Have you had some similar experience??

Well so this is what I came up with.

Sew a cushion from a Tshirt



I love my dining area... This space is always so lighted... I particularly like to sit in the morning and have those lovely early morning chats with my husband...when he reads the paper and we discuss all sorts of things. From day to day house hold things to politics to gossip :)

And whenever I sit in that chair.. I always end up getting cursing the chair. It has a wooden back and i am not very comfortable slouching back in it.

Well this cushion now makes my early morning chats a more happier ones :)

Tshirt pillow

Tie up the cute little ties to the chair like this ...

Easy Pillow

My naughty little Richu loved the cushion... he was busy dragging it around the house... throwing it around and was having a good time with it... He's run around soo fast in the house...thats it difficult to capture him on camera... haha... this is the best I could manage ;)


The cushion in full glory !

Pillow with ties

It was pretty simple to make .Less than an hour is all that you need. Made this when my little naughty monster was having having one of his afternoon naps :)
And things needed are also nothing much - A tshirt, some cotton and few buttons for embellishment.
I made this cushion out of my husbands old tshirt.
First pick your tshirt and snip it off right below the arm pit.
Now since 2 sides of the tshirt are already sewed, it makes your life simpler. You now just need to sew the other two sides. But before that you need to make the ties.
You can make them using a separate cloth or some excess tshirt material. But I didn't bother to do that... coz that means extra sewing rit. :)
What I did was... I just snipped of the bottom seam of the tshirt. They generally fold the bottom end of the tshirt and sew right... Yes that part...
I carefully snipped it with my scissors. So I had two pieces. Now I aligned both of them together and cut right at the center again. So I ended up with 4 pieces for my ties.

Now I turned my tshirt wrong side out. Sandwiched the ties between the tshirt pieces. The ties must be inside. only a small part needs to lie out. Now pin and sew.
Repeat the same for the other side.
Leave a small opening at the end. Turn the cushion inside out.

Fill Cotton. Slip stitch the opening close. Sew some nice buttons on your cushion... And your done !!!


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