Monday, August 15, 2011

Thinking of Recovering Chairs...Whatcha Think?

These are my dining room chairs and the seat portion is an Oatmeal colored fabric that is pretty boring in my book. Not to mention they just seem to fade into the walls.



These are our everyday chairs, however, if we had a formal dining room, they entire set including china cabinet would go in that room.


Recently I had a friend give me an entire bolt of these really pretty blue plaid fabric and I immediately thought of how cheery it would look if I recovered the chairs in it.


I really like the blue and yellow and am so inspired by it I would love to paint my dining/kitchen area in a creamy yellow to match...the green got old pretty quickly.


When I mentioned to hubs, I wanted to recover the chairs, he said he didn't like that idea at all. He is afraid they will get soiled and the current ones clean up well with Oxyclean and a steam cleaner like my Little Green Machine.


I am thinking I could probably find some of that really nice heavy upholstery style plastic and put over them once they are covered and they would be great. Maybe a bit costly, I don't know, but it would cheer the room and me up a bit!




I don't want to make hubby upset, but what do you think, won't this look nicer than what it is now?

I won't hold it against you if you take his side, I am just curious what someone else thinks!



















6 comments:

Dayna said...

I like the plaid. Is it a Home Dec weight? Is it washable? I don't like the feel of sitting on plastic and it does scuff up with use. It also gets torn and cracks eventually on the corners. Maybe you could make some slip covers with an elastic casing that could be put over the seats or a drawstring closure.

Shelley: the Dread Pirate Rodgers said...

I needed to recover the seat portion of my dining room chairs because after 20+ years of wear, the front edge of the cushion actually *wore through*!

Normally, you'd recover the seats and staple the new fabric in place. BUT ... for my daughter's dining room set (she inherited a table and chairs from a great-aunt), I didn't want to take off the old cover.

What I did for her was to make a *removable* seat cover by putting in a casing and running a drawstring through it. In this manner, she can remove the cover to launder it easily. If she wanted to have a "wardrobe" of seat covers, she could do that too because its easy enough to remove the drawstring cover and replace it with a different one.

You might consider this technique to make cleaning easier.

Regarding the plastic cover. Personally, I really don't like them. They are cold in the winter, sticky in the summer and just feel icky all the time. I'd like to suggest using a surface protectant such as ScotchGuard, which will put a surface barrier on top of the fabric. Granted, you will have to reapply the ScotchGuard after you launder/clean the covers, but not having the plastic will look so much nicer. Just my opinion, mind you.

Shelley: the Dread Pirate Rodgers said...

oh good gosh! I forgot to say that I just *love* the blue/white/yellow plaid fabric! Very, very cheeful!

Anonymous said...

I love the thought of recovering the chairs. You can always get a can of Scotchguard for protection. I have a great fabric resource if you ever need more!

Quiltingranny said...

Thank you for all the comments. Ms. Dayna it is Home Dec fabric, very heavy. Pirate, I like both you and Dayna's idea. Debra, with my grands,I would need industrial Scotchguard...HAHA!!

Love Of Quilts said...

You may not like my Idea but you ask....If I wanted to cover my chairs I would cover my chairs and I wouldn't ask anyone. Trish