How to recover a curved, nailhead headboard - tutorial!

1.17.2023

How to recover a curved, nailhead headboard - tutorial!

I wanted a really unique, cool headboard for my One Room Challenge guest room but I wasn't prepared for a full-on from-scratch plywood etc. DIY headboard. I found a curved headboard with nailhead trim (not my favorite) for $10 on Facebook Marketplace and recovered it with a beautiful fabric, and found a great solution for covering up the nailhead trim. I didn't even have to remove it! Easy tutorial here!

DIY recovered curved headboard tutorial

You will need:

• Headboard
• Fabric (plan to run the fabric vertically, so enough for the width and height of the headboard plus 6"+ on each side--I had to use two widths of my 53" wide fabric for my full/queen headboard)
• Optional/if your headboard is dark and your fabric is light: white spray paint
• Spray adhesive
• Staple gun and staples
• High heat hot glue gun and glue
• Piping cord (or, I used macrame cord since I liked the size better)
• Zipper foot
• Or, for simpler/no sewing, contrast trim!
• Standard sewing tools

Instructions:

1. Measure out and dry fit the fabric. I had to piece mine so I chose how I wanted to center the pattern on the headboard.

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How to make a slipcover using but preserving the old one as a pattern

7.12.2021

How to make a slipcover using but preserving the old one as a pattern

The biggest DIY project in my recent home office renovation was a sewing project! Back to my roots, I guess! I found a really nice slipcovered armchair on Facebook Marketplace for $40 and honestly, the slipcover was fine as-is, just neutral cotton canvas, but I wanted something definitely not neutral! 

I've made slipcovers before (like this one in 2014 and these in 2016) but I was definitely more confident doing it by cutting apart the previous slipcover and modifying it (or doing a simpler chair style). I didn't want to do that this time since the original slipcover was still in great shape! I could have two outfits for this chair!

So I figured it out. I used the previous slipcover as a pattern and made this new beautiful linen ruffled slipcover!

How to make a slipcover using and preserving the old one

Here she is! That blue linen is this one from Fashion Fabrics Club. The original one is a heavy cotton twill and it looks loose and wrinkly in the photo below, but really it just wasn't tucked in all the way to the chair's deep crevices, ha. 

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DIY striped or plaid cube ottoman tutorial

5.11.2020

DIY striped or plaid cube ottoman tutorial

I have been meaning to do this project since last fall!! Quarantine energy kicked in, I guess, and I finally did this fun simple upholstery project. Full tutorial below!

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DIY upholstery: designer-look white & wood chair tutorial

11.18.2019

DIY upholstery: designer-look white & wood chair tutorial

Yay! This project looks so great and I’m so excited to share it with you! I have wanted to do it since I bought these chairs back in 2018. I knew I wouldn’t get to recovering them for a while, and we really needed sitting in our living room!, so I just lived with them in a color I didn’t really like (and that awkwardly blended in to the dresser behind them).

I knew I wanted a light color, but that definitely made me nervous with a toddler in the house. I did some research and decided that the only way I could get the color I wanted would be by making my own sewing my own covers out of a durable, stain-resistant fabric.

I had heard of Sunbrella fabrics for outdoor use, but they have tons and tons of options on the website of stain resistant, washable indoor upholstery fabric stew. I reached out to them and got some great swatches for a light-colored fabric for these chairs that will be durable and easy to clean!

Thanks so much to Sunbrella for providing this fabric for my review and sharing with you in this tutorial!

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DIY upholstered & slipcovered bed tutorial

12.13.2018

DIY upholstered & slipcovered bed tutorial

It's here!! Back when I revealed our master bedroom project I did for the One Room Challenge I said I would share a full tutorial for how we made our slipcovered platform bed. That means plywood dimension options, staple gun tips, and of course sewing the headboard cover and bedskirt! Well, here it is--it's all in this post!

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Upping my slipcover game! Two new DIY slipcovers

3.16.2016

Upping my slipcover game! Two new DIY slipcovers

Phew! What an accomplishment! This weekend I crossed a major to-do off my list: Update my amazing vintage slipper chairs with new covers, since the slightly too-thin white canvas ones I made in 2010 (!) were getting pretty tired. They never fit perfectly, and I didn't have a good solution for the bottom edge so I just left them hanging, mostly covering the fabric, and they were a little too tight so it worked... but it was time for an upgrade.

Part of the reason I didn't upgrade sooner was that the home decor selection at most fabric stores is pretty limited if you want a basic color. There are tons of fancy prints, sure, but if I wanted a solid color, the best choice is the canvas-ey stuff I used back in 2010 (it comes in lots of colors) and it's just not strong enough. So when Organic Cotton Plus wanted to work with me on another project, I thought using one of their many durable, upholstery-weight fabrics would be perfect!

I asked Yasmin at Organic Cotton Plus which fabrics would be good for upholstery--she recommended their canvas, duck (including finished duck which is noticeably softer and pre-shrunk), natural denim, and the colorgrowns. I really liked several of the choices and colors, so Yasmin helped me choose the denim for the chairs, since it's super soft and still very strong, so it would be the most comfortable choice while still holding up to plenty of use over time. (Organic Cotton Plus sent me the fabric for this post.)

Again I used the previous slipcover pieces for my pattern, but had to add and subtract inches here and there to make them fit better. For the bottom edge, I found a super strong corded elastic and made a casing for it to keep things in place.

I also sanded, filled, stained, and finished the wood! It was really looking shabby but I hadn't taken the time before. It really makes them look much better!

The "before"...

...and the "after." Fixed the wood, made the slipcovers!

Much better fit this time.

They looked so plain without throw pillows on them, but my pillows are pure white and grey--do they clash with the off-white, or is it okay because everything else in the room is also a neutral?

I love these vintage chairs so much (I paid $5 each for them at Goodwill Outlet in 2008 or 2009, I kid you not... they rolled them out onto the floor and my friend and I pointed to them and said "We'll take them!") and am so glad to have them looking good again!

Thanks to Organic Cotton Plus for sending me the fabric for these slipcovers!

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Funky vintage school chair makeover

10.14.2014

Funky vintage school chair makeover

It's been a while since I did a simple funky furniture makeover project. I've done a lot with chairs in the past, actually. But it was to the point where I actually needed a chair now, so when I came across this one and turned it into a project, it wasn't just the creative bug making me do it. I now have a new sewing chair!

But it took me a while to get motivated to do this project, cause I thought it would be a lot of work. Which it was. Although, now that I've done the sand/stain/finish thing, I can tell you, I think it's easier than painting!!

You'll see why.

I picked it up (at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, that place is so cool) because it had potential. And all the furniture was half off that day so it was $4. But I wasn't sure at first what to do with it--I needed a vision for it to help it realize its potential. I wasn't sure if I wanted to paint it a fun, bright color, or stick to my usual white or black, and what kind of fabric should I use for the seat??! A bold print? A simple, chic stripe? I couldn't picture any combinations totally meshing for me.

But then I saw this midcentury chair with the dark finish and serape blanket seat--

Source

Source

And remembered this funky DIY bench project.

Source

Now, I do have a very cool Guatamalan-style bright blanket, but I didn't want to cut into it to cover a chair seat. But I had another cool wool cloth thing, thrifted, and turns out I had some ancient super dark Minwax stain. The project came together at last.

Vintage School Chair Makeover

So here's the before. Simple little chair, not too interesting wood color (peeling varnish, too, up close), scuffs, and icky green vinyl seat cover.

Part 1: Sand.

First, I removed the seat and sanded the chair down. That took some elbow grease and made a lot of dust.

Part 2: Stain and Finish.

Once it was sanded, I stained it with this little container of this Dark Walnut Minwax finish. I couldn't believe how good the first coat looked!! SO dark, even with only one coat, and actually pretty even. I guess I did an okay job sanding. I let it sit 10 or so minutes, then wiped it off and let it dry for more than 24 hours. It looked great.

Unfortunately it all went downhill from there. When I put the second coat on it sort of stuck to the first coat and took stripes of it off, kind of like when you write on top of dry erase marker letters with another dry erase marker and it just wipes it off like a tiny felt eraser? Then, when it was time to rub off the second coat, it was like it had dried too much or too fast or too thick, so the rag sort of stuck to it rather than gently wipe off the top layer...

So I recommend only one coat of stain if you can get the color you want!

I think a little more of the color came off when I put on the some polyurethane to seal it. I did two coats of polyurethane, and it has a nice smooth secure finish now.

Here it is after two coats of stain and two coats of polyurethane, before I put the seat back on.

Part 3: Seat.

The grossest part of this project was taking apart the seat cover. Here's the bottom, once I removed the staples and rubbery seat cover and washed off the mildew on the wood. Bleh. But cool to know that it was once in a music department!

I thought about quilt batting or other lightweight fluff like the original seat had, but I also had this green foam (1" I think). I pieced it and attached it to the top side of the seat wood with spray adhesive.

I pulled out my cool wool woven thing (strangely shaped piece of fabric (or rug?) I got at Goodwill once but have never done anything with)--and cut a piece about the right size. Then: staple gun!!

And screwed the seat back on.

Finished!

I'm very happy with it!

And because I already had all the materials except the chair... total project cost: $4. Even if you throw in the other stuff, probably still less than $15. And it gives new life to a formerly cast-aside chair.

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Phew! Vintage wingback chair slipcover finally complete

4.08.2014

Phew! Vintage wingback chair slipcover finally complete

It's been a loooong time on this one.

I started this black slipcover for my vintage wingback chair more than a year ago. For a long time it sat with pins in it in a corner of the living room (sorry, husband!) but it was intimidating, and I never sat down and spent the time to finish. It was probably hard to start, too, but i hardly remember that because it was so long ago!!

I bought this vintage wingback chair for $5 at Goodwill Outlet in 2010. It had a cover on it, which was part of the selling point, because I figured I could cut it apart and use it as a pattern when I wanted to make a new one. The fabric wasn't great but was neutral, so I did wash it and put it back on for several years and used it as-is.

The fabric was a very cool 1940's pebble cloth tan floral print that someone had spray-painted blue on top of. Seriously, you can see blue paint at the tops of the legs and where someone stopped painting on the side of the chair. Obviously it was in pretty bad shape!, but we kept the slipcover on it.

Eventually, a year or so ago, I got up the energy to take apart the tan slipcover and use it as a pattern for a new one. It seemed custom made by a very skilled home sewer, really nicely done, and was relatively easy to copy. I had to pinch and pull the fabric here and there, but it was a good base.

It also took me a while to buy the fabric - home dec fabric is expensive and hard to pick out! I got this black nubby poly stuff on clearance at JoAnn. (See it draped in my first post about this chair here.) It's a great weight for this kind of sewing. I also got some thick piping cord, and a zipper for one side and for the cushion.

Here's an in-progress shot! It seriously sat like (with the cushion on it) this for months while I worked on other things. It really bummed me out. So glad I got to the next phase! Look...

I'm finally, finally done.



With the slipcover, that is. I think I'll probably want to refinish the legs at some point! And get that blue paint off. Probably just sand them and stain them, right? Yeah, that hadn't occurred to me until now since the cover was such a big project. Sanding is no biggie in comparison! ;)

I was nervous about choosing black in the beginning since I didn't want it to look like a big shadow or black hole in the living room, but I really like it now, in contrast to the white woodwork and shelving. And it's perfect with my bright wool blanket and DIY crux pillow!

I think it also helps to put it on the other side of the room/couch and fireplace. You can kind of see it in the slideshow photos of our Apartment Therapy home tour, but that's it in its pin stage. Ha!! The pins are out of focus. (Sshhhh...)

I'm so, so glad it's done. This is a serious victory, people.

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Lots of double welting, and chair progress (part 2)

7.22.2013

Lots of double welting, and chair progress (part 2)

You may remember I'm currently in the middle of a Louis XV chair re-upholstery project. Yikes!! I have several big projects going on right now (sitting around the house halfway done... a little stressful!) but this chair is coming along the fastest. Had to share a few updates since I last posted about it, and get some advice!!

So, first I restored the base seat with the foam from the original, which was in great shape. I opted to put a layer of muslin over the top of it, since my new fabric isn't as thick as the old one.

Then I very carefully stretched the back piece on, and then added the original webbing reinforcement (not shown).

Then I put the original orange foam back in, and stapled the top layer over that.

Then I got tired and put the chair in the living room for a while (and Instagrammed it), where I decided it looked very good. Now I don't want to move it upstairs when it's done! I'll have to decide that later. For a while I just draped the excess fabric over the old seat cushion to make it a little more presentable (left). Still covered in staples and needed a new cushion cover... hard parts coming up!

So this weekend I knuckled down and recovered the cushion. I used the old one's fabric for a pattern and bought some thick cording to make the piping. (See the original here.) I haven't made covered buttons yet and am not sure if I will... again, I reused the foam and padding from the original, which had some covered button tufting. I probably should make some grey ones for the new upholstery... but at least it's usable now.

So, now I only have one major step left... attaching the double welt cording! (Step 4 in the tutorial I'm using, though I did it out of order.) Because yes, I just made 10 YARDS OF DOUBLE WELTING. It took a looooooong time. I definitely watched both Wedding Crashers and The Proposal yesterday. And some old SNL's on Hulu. Had some time finally and made all this cording!

I hadn't cut my bias tape quite wide enough so the first pass was super slow-going and tricky. The second row of piping was much easier, actually, and then I had just a little wedge to trim off. (See pics of how to do it here.)

Phew! OMG, that's a lot of piping.

So my question now is, do I need to go buy Magna-Tac, or can I use glue I already have here? Or, what's the best glue for this kind of upholstery use? I can't imagine glue being strong enough to hold it on, since the original had teeny tiny staples going through the middle of the welting.

Has anyone done this, and have any suggestions?

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Maybe my most ambitious home dec DIY yet, and a furniture paint review

6.03.2013

Maybe my most ambitious home dec DIY yet, and a furniture paint review

I've mentioned I've been doing some crazy home dec projects lately... one of these is possibly my most ambitious ever, and while it's only halfway done, I'm super excited about it and have to share this part. And maybe you can help with the rest!

I've had this Louis XV chair (thanks to Design*Sponge for reminding us of the difference between the different types of French chairs) for years, handed down from my mom, who got it from my grandma. It never went with my mom's craftsman/art deco decor, but I know it can work in our modern/eclectic/girly/glam mishmash, and would work in several rooms. The living room has enough seating for now, so it's been living in our bedroom (totally clashing) waiting to be redone.

Pretty cool, right? Totally has potential!

So earlier this spring, I got an email from Annie Sloan Unfolded, the American distributor of Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan and other furniture redo products. They wanted to know if I was interested in doing a review of their Chalk Paint® and Soft Wax for a furniture project. Um, yes, I was!! I had the perfect project in mind!

I was busy working on my book until my manuscript was due in early May, but later last month I got around to pulling out the millions of staples on the old Louis chair and prepping it for painting. Then I got to use the paint!

I couldn't decide which color to use (they have a ton of pretty ones) since I don't know which fabric I'll recover it with, so I played it safe and asked for white. They sent me some Pure White Chalk Paint®, as well as some Soft Wax for a finish coat.

Chalk Paint® Review

So, after destroying the old fabric and trim and dinging up my hands considerably while watching old SNLs on Hulu (basically how I spent my Memorial Day weekend while husband was away...), I was ready to paint.

I really wanted to do this chair project right, since I've had it for so long and it's a really nice quality piece, and I want it to last! And it's going to take forever to do the upholstery! I figured I would need to sand it down, but the Chalk Paint® tips said I didn't! I just washed it down with some TSP and let it dry.

I also figured I'd need some primer, but nope--this stuff doesn't require it. So, pretty simple and easy compared to what I was prepared for!

It also went on with super thick coverage. Before I started I figured I'd need 3-4 coats, but I didn't need more than two! Here it is with only one coat.

It dried super fast. After a second coat, plus a third partial for touch-up on spots I'd missed, I pulled out the Soft Wax. It's a water repellent top coat that protects the paint job and smooths it out a little, and can be reapplied over the years with wear. It said to apply with a cloth or brush, but it a little too thick than I thought my brush could handle so I used a foam tool.

It sort of smooths over the brush strokes and finish. Here you can see the vertical piece, where I applied the wax, and the horizontal bar where I hadn't yet. Little smoother.

So now the chair is painted, waxed, and waiting for upholstery.

So far, this project has been way easier than I was expecting. ;) As for the paint...

Benefits/happy observations:

• No smell at all. I did the first coat with the garage door open but it wasn't even really necessary! It had no more smell than the nicest quality craft paint.
• No need to prime or prepare? Um, sign me up. (I read that here.)
• Great coverage. That's of prime importance when you're a quick (read: lazy) furniture painter like me and have to do this in your oddly lit, sort of chilly garage by yourself. I did not want to do any more coats than I absolutely had to.
• Dries super fast.
• Cute packaging/good branding. Let's be honest, that makes a difference in how I feel about a product, too! ;) Along with that, great bunch of tips the website on using the Chalk Paint®. I really appreciated reading more about it there and tips and techniques.

So thanks so much to Annie Sloan Unfolded for the awesome products!! If you want to try on your next furniture redo, look for local retailers here. Also find them on Twitter and Facebook,

The next steps in the chair makeover

So, now that I've done the painting part, I have to do the scary upholstery part. I probably never would have attempted this (would have spray painted the whole thing one color or something) if it hadn't been for this five-part tutorial on Little Green Notebook (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5). SO many clear photos, and totally inspiring that hey, maybe I could do this myself. So I have big plans for the next few weeks--must first decide on new fabric (which is where you come in), then (yikes!) I'll be stapling and making that fancy double piping.

Fabric. Um. There are oodles of Louis chair remakes out there, many of them so so pretty. (Seriously; just search Pinterest for "Louis chair" and you'll see what I mean!) I've been pinning some faves lately, as well.

I go back and forth and am pretty sure I want to keep it pretty neutral (although I love a hot pink chair, but I can't do that to my husband), but obviously white is not a great color for a chair that I put a ton of work into and don't want to recover again. ;) I love the black/white look but our bedroom is so pale grey/soft colors that I'm afraid it would be strangely contrast-ey in there. (Here's another black/white--simple but high contrast compared to our grey room.)

Here's what it looks like currently. I'm always switching up the throw pillows and accents, so nothing besides the headboard and curtains are set in stone. The bedding is usually white, though, and I do like the lamps.

So what kind of Louis XV chair goes in this room?!

I think I might like a print, but those are kind of hard to find in super cool home dec fabrics, at a good price. I'm stumped! Uh... beige?!? Help out, guys!! What do you see this chair looking great with!?

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