before & after: the Victorian throne

The Victorian throne chair was a collaborative effort between myself and Urban Threads as part of their Lab series.  Urban Threads knows embroidery, I know upholstery, and together we created an awe-inspiring chair!  You may have already seen a look at the chair here, when I announced (okay, more like jumped up and down and screamed in excitement) that we were very honored to have our chair featured on Design*Sponge as part of their before and after series. 

Without further ado, I present to you the Victorian throne...

after:

before:

We found this (very) large throne of a chair on craigslist.  The chair is Eastlake Victorian style and dates circa 1890's.  The lady I purchased it from shared with me that the chair had previously resided in a beautiful Victorian mansion in the historic district of St. Paul.  Wow.  I wish I could have seen the rest of the house.  I'm a sucker for antiques and old homes.  But back to the chair.  It had great bones and beautiful detailed woodwork, but we wanted to update it into the 21st century (think modern and bright). 

So I stripped off the old upholstery

and painted the chair white!

In the meantime, a team at Urban Threads was busy creating and embroidering large designs to be used on the new upholstery.  All of the designs and patterns used on the chair are available to purchase as a part of their Mendhika collection, so you can recreate this same look on your own chair if you wish.  A special, very thick thread call Burmilana was used in the embroidery for this chair.  Burmilana is yarn like thread that offers beautiful raised textured effects which gives the embroidery a wonderful, old world folk feel.

With the newly embroidered fabric complete I was able to get to work upholstering the chair.

The result is a throne fit for a modern king (or queen).  What was previously a dark and rather clunky chair has been brightened up into a bold and modern piece. 

Who would have thought to use machine embroidered upholstery!?!

Many many thanks to the lovely Niamh of Urban Threads for inviting me to be a part of this collaborative project. Also many thanks to amazing photographer Patrick Kelley for the beautiful after shots of the chair that he pulled together in a single afternoon.

linking up at:

Design*Sponge before and after feature!!

I'm elated, speechless, excited and just all around happy to share that one of my latest projects has been exclusively featured in the Before & After series of Design*Sponge!  Yes, Design*Sponge!! :)

This chair was a collaborative project with Urban Threads, a local embroidering company.

Here's a link - http://www.designsponge.com/2012/07/before-after-upholstered-chair-redo.html
Go check it out, now!

Thanks for getting excited with me!  I promise I will share all of the details of this collaborative chair project with you in a few days.

One more happy face first though...  :)  And a BIG thank you to Niamh of Urban Threads for asking me to share in this awesome collaborative project!

another chair done!

I call this one the figure eight chair.  Yeah, I'm a math girl.  :)

I found this lovely chair at Goodwill.  And the "fabric" I used to reupholster the seat also came from Goodwill.  I say "fabric" because this piece of fabric already had a purpose.  I bet you'll never guess what it actually is.  Okay, maybe you will.  I'll give you a hint...

Yup.  It's a curtain.  Target donates a LOT of stuff to the Goodwill near my house and I scored this brand new curtain (still in the original package) for cheap.  I loved the silky feel of the fabric and knew it would look beautiful on a chair.

Anyway, this beauty got new foam and batting before being reupholstered in this beautiful silk like blue fabric. 

I love how the design in the fabric accents the curves in the back of the chair.

Like what you see?  This chair can be found at Piccadilly Prairie in SW Minneapolis. (Update: Sorry lovely readers, this chair has already sold)

a perfect new home

Yesterday an adorable, young girl took home the white and pink slat back chair.  She was beaming with joy when her mom asked if she wanted the chair.  I learned that it's going to be used in her bedroom along with a new desk that her mom bought earlier in the day.

(They graciously emailed me this picture)

It makes my heart happy that I was able to save the chair from being thrown away and now someone will be able to enjoy it for a long time.  I hope she has many wonderful memories in that chair - coloring, working on homework, crafting, or whatever her heart desires.

This is Nouvelle Vie at it's finest.  :)

french desk obsession

I'm in love with this desk. 

source

  

According to the source it is a "A Country French styled furniture piece from a Tulsa home by Charles Faudree. Used in this home as a vanity / dressing table."

I want one just like it.  I can imagine this one costs a pretty penny or two or ten, but I'm hoping I can find one similar that maybe needs a little work.  I like the three drawers across the top and then the open shelves anchoring the legs.  Surprisingly Mark even likes it.  Saaweet!  I have been faithfully searching for about a month now, but have found nothing yet.  Patience, Jess, patience.  Sigh.

before & after: the white and pink chair

The lovely pink desk chair is finished!

after:

before:

I sanded, primed and then hand painted the chair in Ultra Pure White semi gloss paint by Behr.  Then I added new foam and cotton batting to the seat before upholstering it in Joel Dewberry - Home Decor Heirloom Tile Flourish in Fuchsia.  What a bright and fun fabric!  The fabric pattern placement is perfectly centered on the seat.

before & after: the teal Tell City chair

Wooohooo!  I finally started getting my hands dirty (or is it painty?) and dove into my first project.  It was kind of a big one too.. sanding, priming, painting, glazing, and reupholstering.  Yup, I did it all.  :)

after:

before:

I started off by lightly sanding the entire chair.

Then I gave the chair a thin coat of primer.

After the primer dried the chair was painted a beautiful teal blue color.

The entire chair was antique glazed in black.

Lastly, I reupholstered the seat in Waverly Pom Pom Play in Confetti.

Wow!  What a difference. I LOVE it! I didn't know I had all of that in me.  It's a good thing I do, because I have six other chairs waiting for me in the basement.  Back to work.  :)