before & after: that time I upholstered a chair

The countdown to my new apartment is in full swing (18 days!), but I can’t help but start to feel a tad nostalgic for my current pad. Hence, I spent my entire day determined to document as much as I possibly could of this little 400-square foot space. I’ve searched every folder in my computer looking for as many first-apartment-snippets as possible, so I won’t forget anything.

My search led me to some old pics of one of my favourite pieces—a set of sturdy old chairs my mom and I found in Barrie’s Habitat for Humanity Restore (find a location here) and I think we managed to barter the set of four down to $20 (from $25…yeesh). I fell in love with them instantly, and had big plans of painting them white and then sanding them down—thankthank god I’m lazy and left the finish as is. But what absolutely, without a doubt needed to be changed, were the cushions.

After what I thought would be an easy peruse through Queen Street for fabric, I was left a little overwhelmed and frustrated by the stacks of fabrics to choose from—I love having options, but I had no idea what I was doing or looking for. Enter, TonicLiving.com—an online fabric shop/dream come true. I spent a few days humming and hawing over patterns and colours, and then purchased a few samples (starting at $2). A few days later, an envelope of generously sized samples arrived, I Hummed and hawed for a few more days, placed my order, and almost three years later I’m still in love. 

The actual upholstery process was easy and really only has three steps: Measure fabric twice, snip and staple (use lots of staples). 

Downloaded the fuzzy picture above from Facebook, circa January 2011.