Reproduction Coffee Sack Chair

I love reusing things and making them new.  I wish I'd actually been able to find an old coffee sack for this project.  From the hits you can get on Google when you type in 'coffee sack chair' you'd think these things are being given away at your closest DIY or thrift store.  Not so, my friends, not so.  What's a girl to do?  MAKE ONE, obviously.

And so I did. 

I was given a stack of old burlap sacks a few months ago.  I washed them, dried them, washed them, and dried them...and then hung them out on the line for ages.  They shed.  Worse than a collie.  Here's a tip for you: if you wash industrial grade burlap and then dry it in your clothes dryer, check your lint trap about every 5 seconds so your house doesn't catch on fire.  I'm not saying my house caught on fire, but it could have.  Seriously.

Here's what I started with:

It was an occasional chair (possible one of a set of dining room chairs that got lost) and it was in great shape.  There was even still plastic on it from the manufacturer.  Could I actually take this thing apart?  Was is sacrilegious?  If you think so, you should probably stop reading.  Obviously I took it apart.  With abandon. 

 

When I take things apart, I usually attack them with a combination of screwdriver, chisel, hammer, and brute strength.  Sometimes I also use pliers.   That's what I did here, too.  I started with the front - everything was in great shape, so I was able to reuse the original foam and keep the trim (welt or piping, if you will).  I even kept the old fabric on there!  Saved me time, and kept everything in line (ie: foam on the backboard).

I ironed out the burlap, cut out a piece generously larger than I would ever need and set about stapling and triming.  It's not rocket science, but, like anything, the more you do the better you get.  I'm pretty good at reupholstery these days.  A tip?  Throw a few staples in place on either the top or bottom of your piece.  Use your flat palm to smooth and stretch your fabric down to the opposite end of your seat (or whatever you are reupholstering), and staple in place.  Go back up to the top, throw down a few more staples, and repeat the process.  This gives a bit more of a 'balanced' stretch to the fabric.  Repeat this on the sides and you will avoid those awful 'over stretched' moments when the fabric has been pulled too tight - this is especially important when using fabric with stripes. 

 

 

About corners: there are lots of methods for corners.  I like mine.  I staple the top, bottom and sides most of the way, but leave a couple of inches unstapled around the corners.  I pull the corner piece over the seat corner (or whatever corner you are dealing with) and throw in one staple to keep it from moving.  Then I trim the fabric on corner, effectively cutting of a 'triangle' of material.  This gets rid of bulk.  Then I pull over and staple the two corners one at a time - I trim away the excess fabric of the first corner I staple and then the second corner usually lies nice and flat.

Update: Hey guess what?  Because this section is totally confusing, I made a separate tutorial about how to fold upholstery corners.  You can read all about that here.

 

I covered the seat and two back pieces in what felt like a few minutes.  It was probably more like half an hour.  Or maybe three.  There are no windows in the basement so who knows?

Because I didn't have a 'real' coffee sack and was using burlap to recreate the same look, I could paint on any kind of pattern I wanted.  Just my style.  I opted for a unifiying triple stripe on the front and back.  I measured a mid-point on the chair seat, sketched a line in pencil all the way up the seat and then eyeballed an about-an-inch stripe for the centre and marked with tape.   

I 'eyeball' a lot.  I'm sorry.  Not everyone can do this.  You can do the extra step of measuring an inch each side of the centre line to get an exact measurement, and then tape off. 
 

 

I used plain old latex paint in an off-white for the centre stripe.  I didn't use much paint, and applied with a daubber for stencils.  Also, since I'm too cheap to buy 'real' painter's tape (unless it will ruin a surface) I used regular old masking tape.  Easy.

 

Guess what? I eyeballed the other stripes. I'm such a baller. Just tape 'em off and paint 'em. 

 

I like making stencils out of Contact Paper (or Mac Tac).  I print off the image I want to use (in this case I made one up in Word, save it as a jpeg and blew it up using Block Posters), and I glue it to the contact paper.  Then I cut the design out with nail (or sewing) scissors.  I like them better than an exacto knife...much easier to handle and easy on curves.

 

Quick paint job...

I was able to reuse the contact paper stencil twice - for the seat and for the back.  I didn't want everything to be too matchy matchy so I staggered the stencil on the back.  Perfecto!

 

 

I did a quick paint job on the chair with homemade chalk paint.  Gave it a really gentle distressing, and then reassembled everything.  I reused the original piping as it coordinated with the large stripe on the burlap sack.   

 

Check out the makeover linked up below, plus lots of other great redos!

Update: In March 2013, I was featured on 'Better After' my favourite blog devoted to the best part of DIY - the makeovers!  Have a look and fall in love with Lindsey's website youself - click below...
 

 

 

For the price of 'free' - Painting Upholstery

Finally, some photos!

In the new house, Christopher gets his own office (and I get my own workshop - yes!).  However, as all of the rooms in the house are enormous (a terrible burden, we will try to stand up under it) we needed some new furniture.  Problem: We are broke.  I am pretty cheap.  Fairly broke + pretty cheap = a difficult equation, but one that can be solved when you find free furniture on the side of the road!

I'd already researched 'painting upholstery' online because I'd come to the realisation that I would most likely be purchasing a chair from one of our city thrift stores and that it would probably be hideous.  The results online looked impressive and the reviews were pretty positive so I decided to commit.  You can find detailed  instructions for how to paint furniture here on Kristy Swain's blog 'Hyphen Interiors'  and lots of pictures of impressive 'before and afters' here.

As for me, here's what I started with:

It's a nightmare!

It was also a little worse-for-wear which you can't see in the photos.  There were obvious signs of feline sabotage (just scratched up, don't worry.  I checked) and I did my best to trim off the extra bits and threads.  My friend Leah also helped at this point.  I'm pretty sure she thought I was crazy.  I'm pretty sure she still thinks I'm crazy.  Anyway...

I don't have any process pictures - I have to work on that and I promise I will!  But I do have a fantastic 'after' photo (complete with cheap IKEA pillow and nearly free lamp I scored for $7.50 at an estate auction).  All-in-all, I'd say the chair cost about $30 for the materials (paint, furniture tacks, $3/m fabric).  I challenge you to find a wing back chair you like for $30 bucks!  

I have to add: I used foam I had lying about the 'shop to pad the front of the armrests.  It's not ideal but it worked in a pinch and I wasn't willing to buy anything more for the chair.  You could get a smoother finish with more appropriate foam...but good enough for me.  I only use the good stuff when I'm actually going to sell the furniture!

 OK, so, I'm not quite finished with this yet...I do want to cover the seat cushion and get a brown throw for the back of the chair.  As for the painted upholstery experiment...it was worth it once I was finished.  Because there were so many pulls in the fabric and because the fabric was a heavy tapestry, it accentuated some of the negatives of upholstery painting, namely the hardness of the fabric with paint on it.  I opted to cover some of it up with soft black fabric (see photos), and I'm happy with the result.  Totally worth it!

I am also painting this couch!  Much better results here in terms of texture of material after painting!

Here's the main section of the couch with final coats of paint.  We chose a neutral off-white (because there was a gallon of it in the 'Oops' paint section.  I pretty much only buy 'Oops' paint.  Because I am cheap).  I taped up the wood to protect it as much as I could during the painting.

Painting on upholstery doesn't look that great after the first coat.  In fact, it almost looks like you haven't painted much at all (but your arms tell you a different story! My lovely husband, Christopher, helped paint the first coat).

The second coat looks better, and the third coat is best.  Stick with it and follow those directions I linked up at the beginning of this post.  I *mostly* followed them and they worked for me!  I chose NOT to use Fabric or Textile Medium because I couldn't find it in Peterborough.  I read on another message thread that latex paint basically WAS paint with fabric medium in it, so I chanced it.  I wouldn't bother with the fabric medium unless you want to make the project more expensive.

What I most certainly WOULD recommend is sanding the fabric before your third coat.  It makes a world of difference!  In dark colours the sanding will lighten and distress the painted fabric, but your third coat will take this away and give you saturated colour again.  You may want to spot-sand after your third coat and use a thin layer of paint to touch-up where you sanded afterwards.  Your fabric will now feel more like vinyl or leather, or perhaps even outdoor furniture.  It's not cozy and cuddly, but it's a cheap fix for ugly fabric and can save furniture from the landfill which is always a plus.  It's "livable-withable" as my mother used to say, and very durable - apparently it repels animal fur and is [obviously] stain resistant!  Just do it (which my mother never said, but Nike did)!!

I will post pictures of the finished couch when I get them - it took FOREVER to paint but I think it looks awesome!  A new couch for $75?  Yes please!

Happy painting!