Chair Facelift

For those of you that know me, know that I love sentimental pieces and furniture that has a story behind it. We have been blessed to have almost all of our furniture handed down to us from our parents, which was handed down to them from theirs. Therefore, we have some great antique pieces that ALL have a story!

These beauties came to us via the late Glenn Jackson, Ryan's great aunt. We have renovated her house and have rented it out since she went into a nursing home and passed away. She was one fiesty, fun lady and always kept us on our toes never knowing what would come out of her mouth. I think Becky said they were Max's grandmother's before that?? Even better! While renovating, we came across some fun antiques pieces and divided them up among family members. Four of the great pieces that we were able to bring home were these:

The picture does not do them justice. The bones of these chairs are amazing. They are a deep espresso stain and I am in love. When we received these chairs, these were their covers: 

I think they are actually a pretty cool design, just not my colors. I want to leave them on there because one day I might like them enough to use them! (Plus my mother in law nicely asked that I don't ever get rid of this cover, since it was so sentimental.) So I covered them in that trusty chocolate brown that I think I went WAY overboard with in the first years of decorating! 

Well, as mentioned in previous posts, the chocolate brown must go! So I began by removing all of the staples and I found a nice cream burlap I wanted to use. This cream burlap was given to me by my amazing aunt Debbie! Just one more touch to another reason I love these chairs! 

It was too thin, and showed the other fabric through, so I put a solid white fabric underneath: 

Got my trusty staple gun and got to work. 

and...FAIL! The cover turned out horrible! It was bumpy, not smooth, even though I pulled SO tight on each staple puncture! I was so bummed, because I KNEW this would look so good. 

This picture does not even show the worst part. Because these cushions are so old, the batting, stuffing, whatever was under this fabric, was battered and bruised...

 So time for plan B. Plan B: Ryan. 

He came to the rescue and helped me decide to take the cushions all off. Put them in a trash bag for safety, and stick them in the attic for later use. 

We then decided to build our own seat cushions! So we took a quick trip to home depot, with our trusty helper: 

We bought 1/2 inch mdf (wood) (oh and some paint, for another soon to be blogpost) and went to hobby lobby and got some foam. 

Ryan got to measuring, excuse his tube socks: 

And Voila!

I am SO pleased! And so thankful for my 2 helpers! And BOY, do these chairs have even more of a story! ;)

Makes this rental house and temporary living a little more do-able! More projects to come!